By Jody Goodwin,Special to the Sun Journal

TURNER – Selectmen voted Monday night not to include an article in the annual meeting warrant to move the town office because it could result in the town’s acting illegally.

“It is not constructive to include an article on the town warrant that if passed would authorize the town to engage in illegal action,” James Belleau of Skelton, Taintor and Abbott advised the board in a letter.

The article was submitted by Ralph Caldwell, chairman of the Leavitt Institute Committee. In January, selectmen refused to put the article on the town warrant until Caldwell got approval from the SAD 52 Board of Directors for housing the town office in the town-owned Leavitt Institute Building. The town owns the building, SAD 52 owns the land it sits on in the middle of the Turner Center campus, and the school district holds the final approval power on the building’s use.

The SAD 52 Board of Directors in January unanimously voted not to allow the town office to be located there because of traffic safety.

Since Caldwell had not met the selectmen’s terms for inclusion of the article, Caldwell gathered 248 signatures and submitted it as a citizen petition.

At a meeting on March 7, selectmen voted 3-2 to include the article on the warrant. Selectman Dennis Richardson pushed for that inclusion, he said Monday, because “the people have a right to be heard.”

That decision, however, was reversed Monday by Richardson.

“The job of a selectman is to protect the assets of the town,” Richardson said when asking that the motion for inclusion be reconsidered.

According to the institute deed and the contract signed between the town and SAD 52 concerning the building, if the town uses the building in any way that is not approved by the SAD 52 board, the building is forfeited and goes back to the school district.

Selectmen Lori Fish and Jennifer Wadsworth, who voted on March 7 against the article’s inclusion in the warrant, stated their unwillingness to put the townspeople into a situation where they might, without knowing the facts, approve an illegal action.

“I am not prepared to deal with the consequences if this passes,” Wadsworth said.

Fish said she didn’t want “to lead the board into illegal actions.”

On a 4-1 vote, with Selectman Henry Gibbert vigorously opposed, the board removed the article from the warrant.

Since the warrant has already gone to the printers, copies sent to residents’ homes will include the article, but the official, posted notices for town meeting will not.

Three of the town’s four representatives to the SAD 52 Board of Directors attended the Monday night meeting. Betsy Bullard and Adam Schenck questioned whether the Leavitt Institute Committee was taking actions that were best for the town. Bullard questioned the action taken at the 2004 annual town meeting and said that residents specifically requested that a representative of SAD 52 be on the institute committee. She said her information confirmed that that had not occurred. Schenck’s comments were even stronger.

“Please strongly consider and aggressively address the people you have chosen to oversee this building,” Schenck told selectmen.

He also strongly commended the action the board took and the strong leadership role they had chosen in this situation.

Caldwell, who attended the meeting, had little to say.

“We made, obviously, a poorly crafted article. We thought it was (a) good use for the building, and it would save the taxpayers thousands of dollars,” he said. “We made an error.”

Town meeting will begin Friday, April 8, with elections at the town office at 1 p.m. The meeting will reconvene to consider warrant articles at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 9, at Leavitt Area High School.

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