Richmond, ME ????

[Submariner]

... big town services. ... highway department ....
police department provides around the clock coverage. Modern fire stations and firefighting equipment ...

LOL

Some of those phrase caught me as funny.

First let me say, that I do not live there, and I have no idea if those things are true.

But having a road crew, a PD and a volunteer FD, are all it takes to be "Big Town" services? LOL

Then the PD is open 24 hours a day! This is in comparison to what? Is there another PD that turns off their phone at 5pm and goes out drinking? Aren't all PDs entrusted to respond 24 hours a day? Even if they only have one LEO, I bet he is on-call 24/7.

The FD has modern equipment. Okay, I think that today it is likely illegal to be using a horse-drawn pumper wagon. It would have to be using 'modern gear' to get their Federal subsidy. A volunteer FD can not be too modern however. Keep in mind that with no professionals around the neat toys will tend to all get broken very quickly.

[SportFury59]

Not all local PD's are open 24 hours a day. I live in what is called the Village of Kronenwetter. Our population recently went over the 5000 mark which mandated that we have a police department. Until recently our PD was only on duty for 2 shifts (16 hours). Our county Sheriffs Dept covered the other 8 hours. They would charge our village $84 for every call they made. It didn't take long for our village to hire another guy to cover the other 8 hours. Some small towns around here only have 1 officer on its staff. There again, the County has to cover the area. They have 24 hour coverage but not by the same department.

[Submariner]

I have known LEOs who worked in areas where the dispatcher shut-down and it went to a regional dispatcher. If a response was going to take the county longer than 2 hours to respond they would call the 'off-duty' local to respond.

Here in our township, we have a sheriff deputy who drives through once a week and a game warden who comes through once a week; so we are fine

[bangorme]

Richmond is a wonderful little town. Has a neat restaurant in the the middle of it (don't remember the name). Maine is a great place to live, if you have a job. Don't come up without a job or you will probably be disappointed no matter where you live.

[mainegrl2011]

Forgot to mention the teaching situation in NC. Most of the school systems are based on county. There are 100 counties in the state. Salaries are determined by the state legislature and school systems decide whether or not to pay a bonus and how much that will be. I wouldn't recommend making a job decision based on going to the county that pays the biggest bonus--there must be a reason it's so high, right? Of course, there are budget cuts being proposed all around, but it only takes one open teaching position for your husband to be employed. The cost of living is pretty inexpensive compared to some areas of the country.