LIVERMORE FALLS – Nearly 60 people braved thunder and lightning Monday to attend the first Board of Selectmen’s meeting since voters shut down town services at last Wednesday’s town meeting.
Town Manager Martin Puckett began the meeting by telling selectmen that, after going over the town’s options with Maine Municipal Association lawyers, he learned that as of “July 1 the town will come to a standstill.”
Last week, voters nearly unanimously decided to deny funding for various town departments and services, including the Police Department, administrative and library staff, and solid waste disposal. They also denied requests to fund capital improvements.
The residents’ move stunned town officials, according to Puckett, who said Monday “I knew that people were upset aboutthe selectboard’s recommendations, but I definitely was not prepared for what happened at the town meeting.”
In a series of three warrant articles, selectmen had proposed shutting down the town’s dispatch and transfer station and farming the services out to the county and to Jay. They proposed using most of the savings to pay for capital improvements, like roadwork, building renovations and new equipment.
Many voters last week disagreed with the proposals, but many more were just angry the warrant articles gave them no choice in the matter.
Residents’ votes to defeat the articles left the town without funding for a number of important services as of July 1. In addition to not funding the dispatch and transfer station, voters also denied requests to fund the Police Department and town administration.
Puckett said early Monday that selectmen could, potentially, agree to new warrant articles Monday night and set the date to hold a special town meeting before July 1. By law, warrant articles need to be set at least seven days before a town meeting, Puckett said.
But, with one member of the board on vacation Monday, selectmen did not come close to finishing rewriting the articles. Their next meeting, which will be held next Monday at the earliest, according to Selectman Russell Flagg, will not happen in time for a town meeting to occur before July 1.
Therefore, town services will be shut down, or at the very least, many town employees will have to work without pay after June 30.
After Monday’s meeting, police Chief Ernest Steward said members of his department have already volunteered to work without pay until the town’s budget issues can be resolved. But they may not be allowed to, Steward said. “We’re trying to work something out” with the county so that Livermore Falls officers will be insured on the job, he said. Without insurance, the department may not be able to work at all.
Meeting attendees had a variety of responses to last week’s meeting. Many booed or yelled when selectmen were speaking. Many, like Eric Rodzen, think that the way the warrant articles were written, not giving voters the chance to deny requests to shut down services and still approve a budget, was done on purpose. “They did it on purpose – they thought if they gave us no choice we would have to go along with it,” Rodzen said.
But some, like former Selectman Clayton Putnam, believe regardless of residents’ anger, decisions from here on out should be made “with our heads, not our hearts.”
Selectmen should have written more choice into the town meeting warrant, he said Monday, but they had good intentions, not bad ones. “The selectmen should not be chastised for looking for ways to save the town money,” Putnam said. “Personally, I hope cooler heads prevail.”
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