SUMNER – Fire Chief Bob Stewart said he believes a recent inspection of the town’s firetrucks was poorly done, perhaps to the point of endangering the town.

Stewart reported to selectmen Tuesday night that there are documented discrepancies in the reports made by the inspection company. He showed the board three checklists filled out by the company employee who conducted the inspections. Among items checked off as having been inspected are a number of parts, which Sumner’s trucks don’t actually have. The checklists show that pumps on the trucks were tested at 30 inches of vacuum, although the pumps are only capable of producing 23 inches of vacuum. In addition, the town was billed for five hours of labor. Stewart said he doesn’t believe the inspections lasted more than four hours.

Stewart reported that he tried to contact the owner of the company and found that he was unwilling to discuss the matter.

Selectmen agreed to send a letter Stewart has written to the company.

Selectman Tom Standard said it is important to get to the bottom of this matter.

Standard said he sees three possible outcomes to this problem. First, it may be a misunderstanding, in which case “we owe them an apology.” It may turn out that the inspector did a poor or partial job, and the town will be willing to make a partial payment. The third possibility Standard said he sees is that “this may be fraud.”

In other business, Realtor Gerald Farrar voiced concerns about Sumner’s recent tax valuation. He presented selectmen with a list of properties that he claims had sold for far less than their assessed values.

“We paid these guys $30,000 to do an evaluation that’s not right,” Farrar said of John E. O’Donnell and Associates, the firm that conducted the reassessment. “What their figures come up to does not match what I see.”

Standard acknowledged that as a local Realtor, Farrar has a knowledge of the town that an outside firm does not have. He said that it was important for the selectmen to hear from all sides of the issue.

Selectmen looked more closely at Farrar’s examples during closed session and found that most of them matched pretty closely the valuations given by O’Donnell. There were some exceptions, such as a property that had sold to the owner of an adjacent property for far less than its market value.

Cynthia Norton, secretary to selectmen, said it was an issue of semantics. The definition of “fair market value,” she said, is the value of the property and not, as Farrar claimed, what the property actually sold for.

Selectmen passed a motion to close the Proctor Bridge on River Road. Standard reported that some crossboards and runners on the wooden bridge were rotten and may not be safe, especially to trucks. Road Commissioner Jim Keach has put up warning signs on the bridge, but it will not be blocked off. Until the bridge is fixed, people may cross at their own risk.

Selectmen also voted to hold a special town meeting at the Bisbee-Dyer Municipal Center at 7 p.m. on Oct. 29. At the meeting, residents will be asked to approve changing the date at which interest may be charged on late taxes from Dec. 1 to Feb. 1. This will give taxpayers more time to pay taxes, which may be considerably higher this year than last year.

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