WEST PARIS – Selectmen agreed Thursday to assist Tri-Town Ambulance and Rescue Service with the purchase of a new ambulance.

The town will apply for grant money from the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

According to Tri-Town Chief Norman St. Pierre, the service has already received $33,000 through the United States Department of Agriculture.

“We want to apply for a grant from MEMA,” said St. Pierre, “but where we are not a municipal department. We need the town’s help.”

He said he would like to request $63,000, “which would bring our ambulance fund to $96,000 if it were approved.”

Selectmen agreed and said if money is available through grants, they would be willing to help. However, they made it clear that the townspeople would have to vote at a town meeting to accept the money if a grant was approved.

Because there is a special town meeting coming up in the fall, St. Pierre asked if a vote to accept the funds could be taken at that time even though the grant most likely will not have been approved.

“Can accepting the grant money be voted on before the fact or does a vote have to come after the money is granted? If it can, it will save a lot of time,” he said.

Selectman Howard Gurney said a vote could likely be taken prior to approval, “but we’ll have to check on it before we include an article in the next special town meeting warrant.”

Board Chairman Wade Rainey agreed and said he will contact the Maine Municipal Association to make sure.

St. Pierre was also asked if there is a closing date on the application process.

“There is no closing date. Through homeland security the grant period is wide open,” said St. Pierre.

The board plans to turn the grant writing process over to former selectman Jim Marshall who is a state licensed grant writer.

In other business, selectmen voted to authorize Town Clerk Cheryl Shattenberg to open an account with the Bethel Veterinary Hospital to lower the cost to euthanize stray cats when that need arises.

According to Shattenberg, the town pays $65 for a stray at the Oxford Hills Veterinary Clinic. An account with Bethel will cut the town’s cost approximately in half.

“Our Animal Control Officer Dannie Paine checked around and found that the cost at Bethel comes to $24 for a 10-pound cat and $34 for a 10 to 25 pound cat. So I have asked Dannie to take the animals to Bethel when he has to have one euthanized. I will call Bethel and set up an account with them,” she said.

Shattenberg further noted that over the past several months the town has paid around $2,500 for euthanizing strays. If they had it done at Bethel the cost would have come to a little more than $1,200.

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