Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — It was another full house at the Limestone Selectpeople’s meeting on Wednesday, April 21. The meeting lasted for three hours and focused largely on the almighty dollar; while squeezing tightly the draft budget of Fiscal Year 2011 and referring to the strained juggling act being placed on public works, fire and police budgets to reduce costs as “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” the board approved the spending of $9,000 from the economic development account to be used to fund a 25-hour a week consultant position to facilitate the opening of the proposed Northern Woods Folk Art School in a vacant building in the downtown area. Folk school representatives, led by Fred Edgecomb, expressed urgency in obtaining funds so that the consultant could begin setting up preparations for the mock-folk school, which was explained to be more of a summer art fair atmosphere to test whether or not a folk school is feasible.
While the funds were specified for the use of funding the $15 per-hour position — which Folk School Committee representatives indicated was already filled, though never advertised — the $9,000 is only available for use until the end of FY10 on June 30.
Amidst the discussion regarding the ethics and legality behind using taxpayer funds to hire a consultant without first posting the position, a motion was made by Selectperson Fred Pelletier and seconded by Selectperson Jim Leighton to appropriate $9,000 for the proposed folk school.
Leighton commented that if you spend nothing, you get nothing.
Prior to the Folk School discussion the selectpeople deliberated extensively on portions of the public works, fire and police department budgets to be certain that every dollar was properly placed. At one point, Selectperson Mary Morin discussed with Public Works Director Mike Cote whether or not it was absolutely necessary to sandblast and repaint the public works trucks, or if the proposed $10,000 the project would require could be used to help chip away at the street repairs badly needed in some parts of the town.
Giving an example of the high cost associated with street repairs, Cote informed the selcetpeople that, for instance, to fix the portion of Trafton Avenue extending from Maine Street to High Street (not including any curbing), it would cost the public works department $9,000. After discussion, the board approved the $10,000 for sandblasting and painting vehicles.
While preventative projects could be allocated for some town equipment, Town Manager Donna Bernier informed the selectpeople that the boiler in the Municipal Building will be requiring replacement in FY12, if not FY11. The new boiler project, estimated to cost a maximum of $27,000, greatly surpasses the current administrative office reserve account; because the Municipal Building is shared between the Police Department and the Municipal Government, the selectpeople discussed the boiler situation with Limestone Chief of Police Stacey Mahan and decided that the cost of a new boiler could be shared between the reserve accounts of the administrative office and the police department.
The draft Fire Department budget was approved after very vocal discussion where Selectperson Chair Walt Elliott had to rein in the comments of more than one individual. At one point, it was even questioned whether or not the volunteer firefighters would respond to a call if the fire department budget was manipulated too much. Tension regarding the firefighter budget has been high since the selectpeople first started working on the FY11 budget.
The draft Police Department budget, which has also raised a bit of a commotion in meetings past, was also put to bed by the selectpeople during the meeting along with the acceptance of an ordinance establishing guidelines for the removal of a selectperson.
Fire Department Chief Paul Durepo opened a dialogue with the selectpeople regarding the potential financial feasibility of starting a municipally-owned ambulance service. While pros and cons were discussed in the meeting, Durepo suggested that a citizen’s group be formed to weigh the positives and negatives regarding the creation of an ambulance service.
