WEST PARIS – Managers of two towns represented by Tri-Town Rescue Service said Tuesday that they have attempted to get documentation, including minutes of meetings and budgets, from the private organization’s Board of Directors, but have been refused.

“We’d like some accountability,” Greenwood Town Manager Kim Sparks said.

The Board of Directors of the West Paris-based rescue service, which serves the towns of West Paris, Greenwood, Sumner and Woodstock, and Milton Township, has been under fire recently after members removed rescue Chief Norman St. Pierre of West Paris last week. That action prompted employees to threaten to walk off the job if major changes are not made in the rescue service operation.

West Paris Town Manager John White said attempts to get answers to selectmen’s questions about the service operation have been difficult.

“I think the town should have that information,” said White, who added that the board of directors has been asked to come to a meeting to discuss the situation, but they have not responded.

Sparks said her board had a little more luck when Tri-Town board member Rodney Harrington, who represents Greenwood, asked for and received some minutes of the meetings from Chairman Dorene Wilbur of Woodstock but was told he could not share them with public officials.

Harrington, who sits on the board with Wilbur and Eloise Lewis, also of Woodstock, Susan Litchfield of Sumner and Mary Emery of West Paris, said Tuesday said it has been difficult at times to get information from the chairman.

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m trying to get information, but sometimes it’s not very forthcoming,” said Harrington.

“It’s the way the organization is put together. It’s a private, not-for-profit. It’s almost like a chamber of commerce. They can do whatever they wish to do as far as it is legal,” Harrington said. “The towns make a contribution based on their population and for the money the corporation provides ambulance service to those areas.”

The board’s attorney, Kenneth Albert III, of Lewiston said because the board is a nonprofit, private organization they do not have to open up any books to the town officials.

Towns pay a portion of the rescue service budget, which is estimated by employees to be about $60,000 of the $270,000 to $280,000 annual amount. White said West Paris pays $21,525. Sparks says Greenwood pays about $10,000. It is based on per capita, she said. Contributions by the other three towns were not available.

Harrington, who was appointed to the board in February, said as far as he can tell, the controversy has been ongoing for at least a year.

“It’s very apparent we’ve got to do something. The selectmen, town managers, the board all have to get on the same page and decide what to do,” he said.

Although the board offered St. Pierre a $500 severance package Monday night, the former rescue chief, who serves as West Paris fire chief, said Tuesday that he refused to accept it.

St. Pierre made a public apology to Wilbur at Monday night’s board meeting after refusing to take a $500 severance package he was offered. “The public apology to Dorene Wilbur was so she wouldn’t sue me. She was threatening to sue me because I defamed her character. The $500 severance check I refused to accept. Those were unacceptable terms,” he said Tuesday.

Wilbur could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

St. Pierre has accused Wilbur of using funds raised by the rescue service auxiliary for equipment purchases to pay for an attorney to redraft the board’s bylaws. St. Pierre said he refused to sign the check.

Employees are demanding the removal of Wilbur, Lewis and Litchfield.

According to paperwork presented by St. Pierre, the board fired him for hiring an employee who carried a concealed weapon and for failure to do proper background checks on employees. That employee was identified as Kevin Davis, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon but was placed on a two-week paid administrative in March by the town of Norway after a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun was found in his car’s side compartment while it was parked inside the Norway Highway Department garage where he worked at that time.

Davis said Tuesday that he had been working for more than a year at Tri-Town Rescue Service before the board questioned his hiring.

St. Pierre said former board member Wayne Hakala, then chairman of the board, approved his application for employment.

The Tri-Town Board of Directors is set to meet July 8.