WILTON – Selectmen got into a heated discussion Tuesday when Town Manager Peter Nielsen informed them the two businesses the town expected to repair the out-of-commission Engine No. 5 had declined the work.
Representatives of both companies said they feared being sued if the truck broke down after being fixed.
Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Russell Black, and Selectman Rodney Hall accused Neilsen and then the Fire Department of thwarting the town’s attempts to fix the truck. “We’ve been dealing with this since June or July. I’m really baffled with why it’s not already in service,” Hall asked.
“The Fire Department has done everything in their power” to hinder the repair, Black said, and then added, raising his voice, “We’ve been lied to,” first about what is broken, then about how to fix it. “The only reason (a local mechanic) does not want to fix” Engine 5 is that “he’s afraid of the Fire Department,” Black yelled.
Fire Department personnel want an expensive new truck, and fear that if Engine 5 is fixed, a big purchase will not be approved, Black suggested. “I’m tired of this. I’m tired of being threatened, I’m tired of being lied to, and I’m tired of being bullied around by the Fire Department.”
Selectman Paul Gooch asked what possible reason the Fire Department could have to block the repairs. Engine 5 broke down last summer, he said, and selectmen voted then to spend $25,000 from the town Emergency Fund to repair it. They also began investigating the cost-effectiveness of buying a new truck, which Fire Chief Sonny Dunham says is needed, desperately, in the next few years.
In January, selectmen voted to spend up to $25,000 fixing Engine 5, and to plan to spend up to $250,000 on a new truck, if voters agree to the spending at the June annual town meeting.
But Nielsen said Tuesday that representatives from two local “repair garages” that had previously “expressed a willingness to assist” in fixing Engine 5 – one of which had gone so far as to prepare a “detailed cost estimate” – notified him they were unwilling to complete the work, citing “concerns with liability.”
Nielsen presented selectmen with letters he had written to Maine Municipal Association lawyers clarifying the town’s and the mechanics’ liability with regard to repairing town property, but the MMA response did not seem to clarify the matter much, and he asked selectmen Tuesday how they wanted him to proceed.
At that, Black, Hall and Terry Brann got angry, and after Black expressed his displeasure with the Fire Department, Hall commented that Nielsen, too, should be held responsible for the failure to repair the truck. “We’re paying you to manage this town,” he said.
Nielsen responded, a few minutes later, by telling Black he has “been doing my best to try and get the selectmen and the Fire Department to agree, and proceed – I’ve been doing the best I can.”
Selectmen voted unanimously to table all discussion of a new truck until after they find out what sum, if any, voters approve being spent, and told Nielsen and Dunham they expect a “progress report” on the repairs being made to Engine 5 by their next scheduled meeting.
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