The voters also approved another article omitted from the town meeting warrant.
POLAND – Voters approved all three items on the warrant at the special town meeting Monday night with little discussion.
Voters authorized the town to establish a new fire and rescue department, an issue that was tabled at the annual town meeting.
Poland is in the process of combining the separate fire and rescue departments into one new department with one chief that would be named at a later date. Fire Chief W. Ballard Nash is retiring.
The proposed structure of the new department would be a fire chief and assistant chief over the entire department with deputy chiefs and captains at both the fire and rescue stations.
When the Mechanic Falls Town Council and the boards of selectmen of Minot and Poland met together May 22 to find future regional approaches to areas of mutual interest and cooperation there was discussion about sharing fire and rescue dispatching within two years and the possibility of forming a joint fire and rescue department within several years.
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department is scheduled to begin dispatching Poland’s fire and rescue calls July 1.
The other towns are considering the same option.
The voters approved another article that was inadvertently omitted from the annual town meeting warrant. Poland will join the Maine Municipal Employees Health Trust for health insurance benefits for the town’s employees.
Also approved was an article giving the town permission to borrow money for lead paint and wall cavity mold removal at the Poland Community School. The town would borrow $103,544. Town Manager Richard Chick explained that $64,311 would be repaid at the time of closing and $39,233 would be forgiven.
The turnout of 47 voters was less than half of that of the annual town meeting April 26. “The annual town meeting wasn’t that well attended either. It seems to me it was closer to 100, maybe 125. It wasn’t a big crowd for an annual town meeting,” said Chick. “Special town meetings usually don’t draw big crowds unless there is a particularly hot issue. This one was cleaning up loose ends.”
Ray Waterhouse Jr. served as moderator of the meeting held at Poland Regional High School.
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