RUMFORD — With the days getting shorter, Memorial Bridge remains in the dark — without working lighting on all 10 of its fixtures.

At the Board of Selectmen’s meeting Thursday, Town Manager John Madigan said town Road Commissioner Andy Russell had asked the Maine Department of Transportation about the lighting issue a month earlier.

Madigan said the issue is the wiring, although three or four of the bulbs were working up until recently, so perhaps those bulbs could be checked.

“We’re trying to get something done up there,” he said. 

“So what do we have to do to fix the wiring?” Selectman Mark Belanger said. “It’s been five years or so. We should probably get that fixed.”

Madigan said the only access to the wiring is under the bridge, so a special vehicle would be needed to access it.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Brad Adley suggested they should act on their own and solicit calls to local contractors to find out what can be done.

“Let’s move forward with something,” he said. 

In other business, Tax Collector Tom Bourret said 3,400 property tax bills should be ready to be mailed by Oct. 9 or 10.

“We’re just waiting to establish a due date and then we can get moving on that,” he said. 

The board has called for a special town meeting on Monday for a single warrant article asking taxpayers to extend the due date for the first half of the property tax commitment from Oct. 1 to Friday, Oct. 30.

The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the Rumford Falls Auditorium.

The second payment will remain due on April 1, 2016.

The reason for the delay is that the assessed value of the mill was not provided to the town until Sept. 12.

This will be third consecutive year the town has asked taxpayers for an extension on the due date for property taxes. The tax collection due date needed to be extended two years ago because it took multiple meetings to pass a municipal budget. The date was changed last year because of an abatement with the mill.

In another matter, Bourret announced that they have closed the application process for the tax club. A total of 55 people have been approved to participate this year. There were 50 people in the program last year.

bfarrin@sunmediagroup.net