LIVERMORE FALLS – Emergency services dispatcher Amanda Leclerc will lose her paycheck in two weeks, but she said she doesn’t blame the voters who refused to pass a budget last week.
“Am I going to see a financial strain? Of course I am,” said the married woman, who has one child and is expecting her second.
A dispute about whether or not to shut down the town-run dispatch and transfer station services erupted at the annual town meeting June 14. By the end of the meeting, voters had denied funding to several departments, including Leclerc’s.
The 2006 finances run out June 30, when Leclerc and nearly 25 other town employees will not be getting paychecks.
Leclerc said not getting paid will not stop her from coming to work.
“The town supported us 100 percent at the meeting,” she said, noting that it was the voters’ refusal to cut her department that led to the budget impasse. “I’m very pleased with the way they spoke about us. The least I could do is not turn my back on them the way they didn’t turn their back on us,” she said.
Numerous other town employees will be working come July 1, pay or no pay, Treasurer and Town Clerk Kristal Flagg said Tuesday. “Everyone plans on working and getting a paycheck, after they’re done,” she said. “But we try not to take it personal.”
After a number of tumultuous years at the town office, Flagg said what she does take personally is her job. Because she cares about the town, she’ll be coming into the office after July 1 to complete reports, pay departments that did get funded and collect the mail.
Flagg said she thinks voters last week “were upset and became spiteful” when it came time to fund the various departments. In a democracy, she said, “you can’t vote in spite – it just doesn’t work.”
But many townspeople disagree.
They did not deny funding for the departments out of spite – they did it to make a point, resident Elaine Smith said at Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting.
In an effort to save money on services that could be had cheaper by farming them out, selectmen hoped the town would agree to shut down the two services, using Jay’s landfill for their trash and Androscoggin County for dispatch.
But when writing the warrant articles, selectmen failed to provide voters with an option. Instead of writing open-ended articles or giving voters a number of different funding options to choose from, selectmen gave voters the choice to either accept the changes or reject the plans for entire departments in one vote.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, according to a number of town residents, voters reacted by denying funding to both the dispatch and transfer station, and also rejected funding for elected officials, town administration, the library and police department.
“I’ll tell you what I think the issue is,” said Lewiston resident and Livermore Falls police officer Maurice Drouin. “The people I elect should let me have some say in my government. I think that’s how government’s supposed to be – for the people, by the people.”
Livermore Falls residents think “they’ve been let down,” Drouin said. “Selectmen thought they were doing what was in the town’s best interest. But the choice is up to the people that pay the taxes. They should be able to decide what services they get,” he said.
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