Bow officials are looking at the potential benefits of joining with area towns to buy services in bulk to save money.

Barnstead, Chichester, Epsom, Pembroke and Pittsfield make up the Suncook Valley Regional Town Association, a group that recently discovered it could save 12 to 20 percent on employee health insurance by purchasing it together.

Bow Town Manager Jim Pitts said it’s possible Bow could join the other towns in the future.

“We’re looking at it. You don’t always get a savings doing that, but in some cases you do,” said Pitts. “There’s not always an advantage in placing larger orders. It depends on what you’re doing.”

Budget Committee member Rick Hiland said he believes Bow should become one of the towns in the group.

“Yes, I would definitely support something like that, even if it just saves us a little bit of money. As a businessman, there are things I buy with others to get better pricing,” said Hiland. “I don’t know why the town wouldn’t do the same thing.”

Pitts said buying as a group doesn’t always mean savings.

“When you’re talking the purchase of fuel, sometimes it does get you a better cost. Sometimes it’s difficult to work it out,” said Pitts. “They seem to be making a success of it, and we plan to look at it and see if it is worth it. If we can save a buck, we plan on doing it.”

The Bow School District has been able to save money by purchasing as a group, and teams up with the city of Concord, the Concord School District and St. Paul School.

Starting about five years ago, the group joined to purchase electricity, natural gas and heating oil. According to Dwayne Ford, the school’s business administrator, the group goes out to bid together every year, sometimes every two years.

“When we have done bids, we have almost uniformly come in less than the price we would have with the default rate, if we weren’t purchasing with the group,” said Ford. “Just in electricity alone, two years ago we save $12,000 by doing so.”

Among the other advantages in buying as a group is that Bow benefits from Concord’s size.

“We’re the smallest player but we’re getting helped by the rest of the group,” said Ford. “It (purchasing in a group) has worked in a number of instances, and we’ve been very pleased with it. I am 100 percent certain we wouldn’t have gotten the pricing we’ve gotten over the past four years if we weren’t with additional people.”

Leon Kenison, Bow selectmen chairman, is also the town administrator for Pittsfield, one of the towns in the Suncook Valley group.

“This group is trying to find and look at ways to look at ways to reduce costs, and they are forced to do so because of economic times,” said Kenison. “Discussions have ranged from purchasing insurance to local things like police and safety, maybe public works thing, where instead of having one, we could have one and share it.”

Kenison said the Suncook Valley group came together mostly because of their proximity to each other, but it’s still possible for Bow to become a member.

“Right now, these folks are neighbors. That wouldn’t be the case in Bow, but it shouldn’t be a divider,” he said. These towns have gotten to know each other better through discussions. I could envision that taking place on a county level, although sometimes the larger numbers are difficult to manage.”

The state of the economy has forced town officials to get creative.

“The economy is a catalyst. We get so traditional that we don’t look around until something makes us do so,” said Kenison. “Times are upon us that you begin to look outside the box, and this is one of those looks.“