MILFORD – Number one on Milford selectmen’s list of goals for this year is to resolve emergency communications problems.

But board members seem uncertain about what the voters wanted last month when they approved an $85,000 warrant article to study a dispatch center. Should the focus be on a new Milford-only center, or on the current operation, MACC-Base, which includes Milford, Wilton and Mont Vernon?

Some Milford officials say the three-town arrangement is not good for the town, because it doesn’t allow borrowing money for large purchases and Milford needs updated communications equipment. Consultants from Municipal Resources Inc. reported back to the town last winter that Milford needs more autonomy and should leave MACC-Base.

With that in mind, selectmen offered a $2.5 million article for a Milford-only center on the 2019 town warrant, but voters at the deliberative session amended it down to $85,000, for another study.

Town Administrator Mark Bender told the board recently that attorney William Drescher advised that the $85,000 could only be spent to study a Milford-only center, and a change to the subject of the article is not allowed.

But board Chairman Gary Daniels said that opinion seems in direct conflict with sentiments of voters at the deliberative session.

“That’s precisely why the word ‘possible’ was added,” Daniels said, because residents want to leave open the possibility of a three-town system.

At the board’s April 8 meeting, Selectman Chris Labonte, participating remotely through Skype, said the understanding of the people at the meeting was that the consultant would also study a dispatch center with the other towns.

However, Milford Police Captain Craig Frye, Milford’s representative to the MACC-Base Board of Governors, said the request for qualifications he has prepared to find a consultant, doesn’t address the issue of MACC-Base, only a Milford-only center.

To try to untangle the issue, selectmen will hold a public forum on Monday, April 29 at 7 p.m.

Also on March 25, selectmen voted unanimously to ask MACC-Base to return $137,000 to Milford, the town’s share of a $200,000 surplus.

Capt. Frye told them the governors are trying to learn why the agency has such a large surplus, and he thinks they should return the money to the towns.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100 or kcleveland@cabinet.com.