WYTOPITLOCK, Maine — The small town of Wytopitlock — population of around 140 people — has decided to remove its public interest telephone in favor of a new snack vending machine.
The phone is located on the outside wall of the volunteer fire department building.
Born out of a 2005 state law, public service phones were meant to provide telephone access to areas where traditional public phones would not otherwise be available. There are 35 such phones statewide, including the one in Wytopitlock — located near the boundaries of Aroostook, Penobscot and Washington counties.
With the use of mobile and smartphones, the need for public interest phones has waned. The phone had scarcely ever been used, and no one knew for sure when exactly it was installed, Wytopitlock officials said.
“The only time I had heard about it is when the police came to my office looking for someone,” said Diane Hines, town manager for Reed Plantation, which includes Wytopitlock. A person had used it to call 911, but the address on file for the phone was mistakenly listed as the Wytopitlock School, which now serves as the town office.
Hines drove out to the location of the phone, examined it and determined its origin was the Public Utilities Commission, she said. She contacted the PUC, which granted her request to have the phone taken out of service.
The town’s volunteer fire department wanted the phone removed to install a new vending machine. A soda vending machine is already installed, but the firefighters wanted an additional one that would sell candy and snacks.
“If people here want to go buy food, they have to travel either to Lincoln or Houlton,” said Michelle Austin, the town clerk who also works at the town’s post office attached to the fire department building. “I think the people here will be happy to get a vending machine.”
The machines will be run by the town’s fire department and the funds from the machines will go toward raising money for the department.
