WEST PARIS - Citing lack of faith and trust in their directors, Tri-Town Rescue Service employees said Monday night that they will resign from their jobs if major changes are not made in the operation of the rescue service.

They are demanding the removal of the rescue service Board of Directors Dorene Wilbur and Eloise Wilson, both of Woodstock, and Susan Litchfield of Sumner. Wilbur is president of the board.

The threat of a mass resignation came shortly after former chief Norman St. Pierre said he met with board members Monday night, was handed a $500 severance check and was told to make a public apology for remarks he made last week about Wilbur's alleged misuse of service funds.

Staff at the ambulance service, which is based in West Paris and serves West Paris, Greenwood, Sumner, Woodstock and Milton Township, were informed Thursday night that St. Pierre was removed and that new bylaws would be adopted allowing townspeople to be appointed to the board.

The four towns are represented on the board, but Milton Township is not.

One employee has already given written notice of his resignation and others say they are ready to follow suit.

"We have no other alternative but to replace the board or walk. What else can we do?" asked Jim Owens, one of about a dozen of the 25 or so Tri-Town Rescue Service employees who met with members of the press at the town hall Monday night to air their concerns.

"They won round one. They fired Norm and we just sat there. Our only other option was to go to the public, go to the press," he said.

According to paperwork presented by St. Pierre, the board fired him for hiring an employee who carried a concealed weapon and for failure to do proper background checks on employees. The employee in question was Kevin Davis, who was placed on a two-week paid administrative leave in March by the town of Norway after a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun was found in his car while it was parked inside the Norway Highway Department garage. Davis left the job shortly after and joined Tri Town Rescue Service.

Davis, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, said at the time that he normally left the gun in his locked car rather than leave it at his residence where there were small children. Because the Highway Department required his car to be unlocked when it is housed inside the garage, he conceded occasionally the gun may have been accessible.

St. Pierre said he never saw any firearms on the grounds of the rescue service. The service bylaws prohibit firearms on the grounds.

St. Pierre said he was also let go because the board claims he failed to do sufficient background checks. He said the board was referring to Davis' hiring. There were never any allegations about Davis bringing a gun on Tri-Town Rescue Service grounds, St. Pierre said.

He said he came to the employees' meeting Monday night to offer a public apology as a requirement to receive his severance pay. "I was asked to make a public apology for what was put in the paper. She found it offensive," St. Pierre said, referring to Wilbur.

Last week St. Pierre, who also serves as fire chief in West Paris, accused Wilbur of using money raised to buy rescue equipment to hire a lawyer to redraft the service regulations.

St. Pierre said he was the person authorized to sign the check that transferred money from the auxiliary fundraising account to pay for the attorney who will redraft the bylaws.

"I refused to sign that particular check," he said.

Asked late Monday night if she wished to respond to St. Pierre's accusation, Wilbur said, "No, I don't have any comment. What (board attorney Kenneth J. Albert III) said was right."

Last week, Albert, of Lewiston, said, "I continue to believe these allegations are false. No one believes she is capable after her 20 plus years or would advocate for any financial wrongdoing."

Tri-Town Rescue Service employees said they object to recent characterizations by Albert III that there was "rallying support" for the fact that St. Pierre would be replaced and the bylaws would be rewritten.

"The only rallying was to get rid of the board and to keep the chief," Davis said.

"There needs to be a wholesale change in the board and in the way the organization is operated," Owens said.

The townspeople also need to know and have a say about what happens with the service, said employee Nigel Lussier, who noted that because the service is a nonprofit private organization it is impossible for employees or anyone in the public to demand documentation for the board's actions. Employees say that as much as $60,000 of the $270,000 to $280,000 annual budget is paid by the towns.

Albert said last week that the reorganization has been a long time in the works after concern arose over what was called a "poor relationship" between directors and town representatives who work with the service.