By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Though little official business was conducted during the Oct. 3 meeting of the Limestone selectpeople, the session still ran about an hour as it was dominated by public comments.
Four separate individuals utilized the public comments portion of the meeting to speak out regarding an anonymous letter that was mass postal-mailed through Limestone in late September with the moniker “The Concerned Citizens of Limestone” — a letter that defended the selectpeople in their decisions made earlier this summer to remove both the police chief and fire chief from office. Shortly after both decisions were made, the board reversed their actions.
Limestone Police Chief Stacey Mahan, who’s firing first caused a stir in the town this summer, was among those addressing the anonymous statements.
“In reference to the letter that everyone seemed to get in Limestone, my opinion on this entire thing is it’s time to move on. If changes need to be made, then the changes will be made. If the board ends up with two new members that have different opinions, that’s what happens,” the chief said, referring to the upcoming Oct. 23 election to fill two vacated seats on the Limestone Board of Selectpeople.
“They’re not always going to make the same decisions or always agree on everything — we’re not always going to agree on everything — but that’s us and I hate to see the town in the paper in turmoil anymore than it already has been,” Mahan added. “I’m proud to work for Limestone – I love the community, and if anything good has come out of this, I’ve had a lot of people tell me what they think of me in a good way, not just a bad way,” he joked. “I just want to say I appreciate everyone, and I hope we can move on and try to do what’s better for the community as a whole.”
As Mahan returned to his chair from the podium, one individual attending the meeting applauded his speech.
While Limestone’s Fire Chief Paul Durepo was not mentioned by name in the anonymous letter, roughly two thirds of the document was devoted to the fire department.
Durepo was the first to stand during the public comment portion of the meeting and address the public.
“Originally I came here and I was going to talk about the letter sent to the citizens of the town of Limestone, anonymously, and I read it the first time and thought ‘this person has got to be a fool or a liar,’” Chief Durepo explained. “So I read it carefully the second time and I decided that they probably were both, and I decided that it wasn’t worth discussing here tonight because it was such foolishness.”
“But I do want to discuss something a little more positive,” he added. “If you’ll give me a few minutes to do that, I’d like to talk about the two hours a day that the Town of Limestone pays [me for] five days a week, and what I do.”
The few minutes quickly turned into over a dozen, as Durepo described the various ways he’d brought funding and equipment to the town through grants and various programs since 2006, when he became chief.
When he was done reading his list of successful programs, he summarized “that totals, for the two hours [a day] that I work — $2,290,800.”
“I thought it was important that everyone understand this,” Durepo said, thanking the selectpeople as he sat back down in his chair.
While Durepo was able to dismiss the anonymous letter as being written by a “fool or a liar,” the document also contained comments that Limestone resident, and Selectperson candidate, Reed Nonken found concerning enough to address the board and the town about.
“First of all, I believe that if things are said in executive session, they’re supposed to stay in executive session — so for that information to come out in an anonymous letters means that somebody on the board spoke when they shouldn’t have, and I think that the town of Limestone and the citizens of Limestone need to know that the board is not doing what they’re supposed to do,” Nonken explained.
“The second, and I think the most important one, is to have any kind of a threat, or any form of coercion in this letter I think is inappropriate,” he added, referencing two sentences of the anonymous letter that referred to the recall petitions aimed at removing remaining selectpeople Tom Devoe, Gary O’Neal and Jesse Philbrick.
The letter reads, “These recall lists are public information. They are turned into the Town Office and can be viewed by anyone,” it reads, before expressing that no one should feel pressured into signing the recall petition.
Nonken emphasized his concern about the anonymous statement to the board.
“I think every citizen in this town needs to feel comfortable coming forward to support you — or to oppose you; regardless, they need to feel comfortable doing so,” he said. “The way [the statement reads], it is very coercive in nature and I think it is absolutely inappropriate, and I think it’s very important for the citizens of this town to know that,” Nonken added, thanking the board before stepping away from the podium.
The final resident addressing the nameless letter was former selectperson Danny Gahagan Sr., whose resignation from the board was approved on Sept. 5.
He had a very specific comment aimed at the portion of the letter that suggested the town go out to bid for a fire chief.
“I would like to question this bidding process that we’re going to do for our department heads. How’s that going to work — lower bidder, less qualified?” he questioned. “That’s what was in your paper that came out.”
The board asked whose paper Gahagan was referring to, and he responded “The Concerned Citizens of Limestone.”
“Well then you’d better check with someone who wrote it, because I don’t know what you’re talking about,” O’Neal said, and responded to an additional question from Gahagan by saying that the board has never discussed putting department head positions out to bid.
“Then you were right,” Gahagan said, turning to Durepo. “That letter that came out was a total bunch of lies.”
With non-letter related questions, resident Randy Brooker made the joke that he felt out of place coming to the meeting and asking about something else, and the room chuckled before he continued.
Brooker had four questions for the board, asking for an approximately 30-foot right-of-way across town land, asking for the policy when it comes to the town’s installation of a culvert for a new home, asking if the town had hired Soderberg Construction to install a culvert and asked what happened to the revitalization grant Limestone had applied for.
Regarding the right-of-way, the selectpeople and Town Manager Donna Bernier expressed that they would need to see the property on a map for further review. Booker replied that he would present what he wants to do next time.
The town’s policy on installing culverts was unclear — Brooker explained that historically, the policy was that for new homes, the homeowner purchases the culvert and the town installs it for free. Bernier expressed that the policy hadn’t changed, but Brooker alleged the town had charged for the installation of culverts twice this year.
Bernier suggested that they take up the question at the next meeting, when Head of the Highway Department Michael Cote could be in attendance to answer questions.
Bernier also informed Brooker that the town did not hire Soderberg to install the culvert — it was a state project and Soderberg was the only bidder.
Brooker expressed his dissatisfaction in the town’s efforts to notify local contractors of the project.
“I think we should keep our money here, is what I’m trying to say,” he expressed. “And that effort was not followed through because I didn’t know anything about it,” Brooker added, asking Bernier if the town could make sure to locate all possible local contractors next time the state has a project in the town.
Bernier also informed Brooker that the town did not receive the enterprise grant they’d applied for, but the town will hopefully resubmit the grant successfully in 2013.
The next meeting of the Limestone Board of Selectpeople takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 6:30 p.m., following a public hearing at 6:15 p.m. regarding the renewal application for the automobile graveyard and/or junkyard permits for Caldwell Auto, LLC and Ricky’s Repair and Auto Recycling.
