TURNER – Officials have decided to contact legal counsel in an attempt to get Progressive Insurance Co. to cover accident response charges that their clients owe the town. Progressive is the only insurance company refusing to cover costs incurred at auto accidents when the local fire department responds.

“Progressive is refusing to pay any bills and we will be talking to the town’s attorney because all of the other companies are paying,” Town Manager Jim Catlin said.

Two years ago, the Turner Fire Department began charging for various kinds of response calls. The Fire Department bills for responding to accidents because of the frequency of such incidents on Route 4, which runs the length of the town. Many of those accidents involve traffic control and hazardous waste responses, and cost the town money even when no local residents are involved.

Two fatal accidents in the past week required both fire and rescue response, and neither accident involved a Turner resident.

Progressive Insurance is refusing to pay on four claims amounting to $2,200, and the money has been owed for “well over a year,” Catlin said. In each of the claims, the insured is a Turner resident. Progressive is refusing to pay them, saying the Fire Department is a service town residents have paid for through their taxes, the town manager explained. However, no other company has taken that action, even when the insured is a resident of Turner.

In other business, selectmen took the following actions:

• Voted to pay a $183 bill to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection even though the bill was five years late in arriving. The bill, however, will be accompanied by a strongly worded letter to the commissioner of the DEP and the governor.

• The board was informed that Fire Department members and the town manager are currently looking at several used firetrucks and will be meeting with the Budget Committee when they have gathered all pertinent information on the trucks.

• Appointed Sandra Parent to the Solid Waste Committee and Margaret Imber to the Planning Board.