LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen agreed Tuesday to advertise for a full-time mechanic for the Highway Department.
They’re looking for a mechanic who knows how to fabricate and weld, as well as fix firetrucks, snowblowers, police cruisers, heavy equipment and large dump trucks.
It sounds like a tall order but it’s what Eddie Black of Jay did, they said.
Black, who served the town for 15 years, is in the process of retiring due to health reasons.
The job was posted in-house at the department, but there were no takers, Town Manager Alan Gove said.
Selectman Joyce Drake asked if there was sufficient mechanic work to occupy someone 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, or whether the mechanic also become a laborer when times were slow.
Selectman Bernal Lake said Black helped on other jobs if he wasn’t fixing equipment or vehicles.
Highway crew worker Rodney Lake said some things are not being kept up since Black has been out.
Black did a lot of preventive maintenance while road crews were out plowing and doing snow removal, including going over the sanders, Rodney Lake said.
“My feeling is, yes, we need a mechanic,” Rodney Lake said.
And the town doesn’t have half the tools it needs because Black had his own tools, Lake added.
Selectman Bill Demaray said that every mechanic buys his own tools.
Selectman Russell Flagg said he would like to see the mechanic-related hours broken down to show how much time is spent working on each department’s vehicles and equipment, so that it could be reflected in the budget. That way the taxpayers would know where the mechanic’s time is spent.
Rodney Lake said Black did keep track of his hours for each department.
“Eddie was more than a mechanic,” Sewer Department Superintendent Kent Mitchell said. “He was a fabricator; a welder.”
Mitchell said that when the Sewer Department needed something made, Black made it.
“I can’t say enough about the guy,” Fire Chief Ken Jones said. “He helped my department utmost.”
Besides fixing the firetrucks and equipment, Black also helped out on the fire ground, Jones said.
Jones said he has some equipment that needs fixing, and it has been costly to send it out for repairs.
Bernal Lake said he wanted to spend the taxpayers’ money in the most efficient way.
Gove said there work be mechanic-related work on SAD 36’s school buses in summer. But Demaray said the problem is that if bus work were added, the town would need more than one mechanic.
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