LIVERMORE FALLS – Voters at Wednesday’s town meeting defeated seven budget articles providing funding for the Police Department, town government and administration, effectively shutting down the town, according to Selectman Russell Flagg.
The move to defeat the articles came as a response to a selectmen-led initiative to close the town transfer station and emergency dispatch office, farming the services out to Jay and Androscoggin County law enforcement agencies. While selectmen maintained the closures would benefit the town by providing funds for capital improvements without causing taxes rise significantly, they did not give voters the chance to decide for themselves in the town warrant.
Instead, the changes were placed in the warrant, and voters were given the choice of either voting down entire budget articles or accepting the closure of the waste transfer station and dispatch office.
Many of the nearly 100 residents present spoke in favor of keeping the services, whether for old time’s sake, or for ease and safety, or for economics. Some were loath to bring their trash all the way to Jay, where the dump’s hours are shorter than at the Livermore Falls transfer station. Others wanted services to be run by townspeople.
“Going to our own dump is a social thing” for many people, one woman said, to laughter from the audience. Another woman said, as one of the oldest residents in town, she remembered when Jay did not want to join a school district with Livermore Falls.
“If they didn’t want your children, they sure don’t want our trash,” she said, to even louder laughter.
For the majority of the voters, though, the fact selectmen left them no choice seemed to rankle more than the actual changes did.
“We are a proud town. We don’t like being put between a rock and a hard place. We need to have some say” one woman said.
“It seems like you hold all the cards – like we don’t matter. That is not the way it should be happening,” agreed one man, to thunderous applause.
Residents defeated articles closing the transfer station and dispatch office, funding the town library, funding the Police Department, the town administration, and paying the elected officials. They also defeated an article providing funding for capital improvements. One man speaking in favor of the defeat said that since selectmen had decided to close the two stations to fund the improvements, a new improvements budget should be made after the other six issues had been dealt with.
All other articles passed.
After the meeting, Flagg wondered what the town will do now. Money to fund the Police Department, town office, highway department, transfer station, and dispatch runs out July 1. His wife, Kristal, has been the town’s clerk and treasurer for nearly two decades. As of July 1, she is out of a paying job, although her term lasts for another two years.
Two or three selectmen are going on preplanned vacations in the coming week or two, Flagg said, and the town manager is getting married and going on a honeymoon until the second week of July.
The town needs to hold a special town meeting to resolve the budget dispute, Flagg said. But, he added, in addition to the officials on vacation, “We have no money to pay the administration and no money to pay the treasurer, so I don’t know if there will be any warrants or not” before July 1. “They’ve effectively shut the town down,” he added.
But for the voters at the town meeting, the comment of one speaker may sum it up best.
“The board better remember who put em there. They oughtta respect that,” he said, to applause.
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