Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — While meeting on May 20 for a small agenda, consisting of primarily an update on the manager’s evaluation, a renewal application for a spirituous, vinous and malt Liquor License for the Limestone Country Club, and the approval and signing of the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting, most of the meeting was spent discussing the manager’s report, elected officials’ reports, and comments from the public. The Selectpeople did encounter one area regarding the signing of the warrant for the nual Town Meeting that required a bit of discussion.
“My problem with this warrant is that it shows budget committee approval when there wasn’t budget committee approval,” said Selectperson Jim Leighton. I don’t have a problem approving the warrant, but I am going to let it be known publicly that I don’t agree with the budget committees recommendations being in there when there wasn’t a quorum to make those decisions.”
Selectperson Walter Elliott offered clarification on the issue.
“I was there that night and they were trying to get the quorum,” Elliott explained. “They did have a quorum because they had an alternate come in; he hadn’t been appointed as an alternate yet, and no one was aware of that. We’ve been saying all along, and people need to know, that the budget committee has a job to do and they have to do it,” he added.
After discussing the issue, the Selectmen approved the warrant with the stipulation that the controversy over the budget committee attendance be mentioned at the Town Meeting, scheduled to take place tonight at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the Limestone Community School.
The manager noted that the Library Expansion Committee is looking to break ground in the near future, and that the recommendations for the summer staff at the Limestone Recreation Center had been submitted.
The mention of the Recreation Center sparked conversation amongst the Selectpeople regarding mowing duties between the school, recreation center, and the Limestone Water and Sewer District. While no motion was made, the Selectpeople recommended that a plan be created distinguishing various areas of mowing responsibly.
"We need to have that in place before we actually slide into the new school [district] because all [existing] contracts will be honored," Elliott explained.
Town manager Bernier, in her manager’s report, expressed a lingering problem with the proposed contract for ambulatory services with Crown Ambulance of Presque Isle; the proposed contract still contains ‘an equation,’ the Selectpeople described, for what constitutes the amount of time the ambulance crew is in Limestone.
Commenting on the request by the town to have a full ambulance crew in Limestone 12 hours a day, “It’s 50 percent, it's pretty simple," Leighton said. "It's not 50 percent of the year, it's 12 hours a day so it’s 50 percent of the time, with a fully staffed crew.” According to Leighton, the current proposed contract with Crown incorporates time spent away of Limestone on transfers with the time the crew is in Limestone to meet the 50 percent.
"The 50 percent is the 12 hours of the day," Leighton explained. "Everyone's got 24 hours a day, I say give us 50 percent of that; that's 12 hours, and that's what I asked for."
Bernier also made sure that everyone received a copy of a letter, sent to the people of Limestone by Larry Stammen. Selectperson Gary O’Neal stated that he wished to discuss the letter during the elected officials’ reports.
After discussion regarding changing the date of an upcoming Selectperson meeting, the Selectpeople discussed their reports.
Selectman Fred Pelletier started by thanking O’Neal for his service on the board, “just in case I forget to next meeting,” which was received with laughter and good natured jokes from the other Selectpeople. Approaching the end of his term, O’Neal has decided not to run for re-election.
Pelletier wanted to ensure that the creation of a capital improvement reserve account, mentioned by Selectmen Paul Poitras in a previous meeting, received additional consideration.
"I know Paul Poitras mentioned about having the capital improvement warrant or starting a capital reserve improvement account, which we discussed at length but it seemed to have died,” he said. “On our new fiscal year, can we add that as a reserve account and start putting money in there?” he asked. “I think the purpose of that capital improvement account was for capital improvement on the town if something came up or if we needed money to improve an area or restructure, that we have the funds to do it.”
Leighton stated that it would have to be placed in the new budget.
Having stated earlier that there was something on his mind, O’Neal quickly got to his point.
"I'd like to address this letter from Grand Forks, North Dakota that we were talking about earlier,” he explained. “And I'm quoting [from the letter sent to the people of Limestone by Mr. Stammen], 'the vote to proceed with phase III of the consultant agreement was unanimous.' I didn't realize that there could be a vote made during a public hearing,” O’Neal questioned.
"There was no vote at the public hearing, we did that at our meeting," Elliott clarified.
"Down at the bottom [of the letter] where it says that the Selectmen voted unanimously on May 7, well I was on doctors orders to stay home and try to get better, but if I would have been here I would have voted against it and I want that to be made public,” O’Neal stated. “[The vote] wouldn't have been unanimous.”
O’Neal also expressed his opinion regarding one of the projects suggested by Mr. Stammen.
"Before this town puts $50,000 towards a wooden Moose, I'd like to see that money put into our reserve accounts that we haven't funded for last year and this year, and that's just my opinion. I realize that there are thing's that have got to be done [in order] to go forward, but if you don't want to end up like some of the small towns downstate that are going bankrupt, then we'd better watch very carefully [what we invest in] because as Donna [Bernier] was talking about before, we don't know what's going on with the excise tax and we don't know what's going on with revenue sharing,” he explained. “It could be a very hard year,” O’Neal cautioned.
Elliott again clarified the situation with the letter regarding the vote.
“It’s very deceiving when you read it,” O’Neal stated.
“I made it very clear that [the ‘vote’ during the public hearing that Stammen refers to in his letter to the people of Limestone] did not have any bearing on what we were doing, it was just to find out what people felt,” Elliott explained.
“I think you mentioned that it was just a consensus," Bernier added.
"I mentioned it more than once to make sure there was no misleading," Elliott stated.
Dan Swanson asked to speak with the Selectmen during the public comments portion of the meeting, primarily about the dwelling next to his own that is in utter disrepair and needs to come down.
"The problem that I see is people talk about selective enforcement of the codes, and that ends up being a huge issue, so my plan was to come up with the circular pattern of the town map and address each section one at a time so that nobody can say that there's some sort of selective enforcement going on,” he suggested. “I think the town needs a full-time code officer/community developer, one in the same position because then there would be a better focus,” Swanson added. “I understand that Larry is just an independent contractor and he's gone after June.”
"As it stands right now, yes," Elliott clarified.
"I was extremely disappointed in that letter,” Swanson added. Swanson had obtained a PDF copy of the letter to the people of Limestone by Stammen. “He was hired to deal in specifics — specific concepts of what the town should do and specific steps the town should take. I was at the meeting and it seemed like he was being very clear of the fact that he had private funding, and everyone I spoke with about this said 'if somebody wanted to build a 45-foot moose, more power to them; it’s not going to cost the town anything, and it may very well be the spark that the town needs to get moving,’” he added. “It will be interesting to see if the same consensus was reached had Stammen stated at that time that it would be a $50,000 Moose.”
Swanson also stated that numerous buildings in a state of disrepair need to be torn down rather than continue lingering as persistent eyesores.
