Sabattus calls emergency meeting to consider removing Marsters from boards

SABATTUS — The chairman of the town’s Board of Selectmen has called an emergency meeting for Thursday night to consider removing resident David Marsters from service on all town boards and committees on which he serves.

This is the only item on the agenda.

The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Office.

According to Town Manager Andrew Gilmore, Chairman Mark Duquette called the board meeting because “he believes, and I agree wholeheartedly, that timing is of the essence to make it very clear that the town government and this community as a whole are in no way aligned with Mr. Marsters, and what we perceive to be his extreme, radical views.”

Marsters recently posted a comment on Facebook: “Shoot the N*****” atop a picture of President Barack Obama.

Public reaction to the post has been highly critical. Marsters was interviewed by the Secret Service for about an hour Tuesday. His wife and neighbors also were interviewed and police searched Marsters’ home for guns.

As of Wednesday, he had not been charged with a crime.

According to Gilmore, town officials “encourage everybody’s right to have ideological views anywhere on the spectrum,” but Marsters’ offensive call to harm the president “clearly steps way over the line,” Gilmore said.

Marsters, who said he owns one handgun, wanted the town to require, by ordinance, every household to own a gun and ammunition. Selectmen refused to consider such an ordinance, and Marsters has since taken out papers to run for selectman this fall.

A past member of the town’s Charter Commission, Marsters serves on the Board of Assessment Review, the Budget Committee, the Ordinance Review Committee and the Citizens Road Committee.

Interviewed at his home Tuesday night, Marsters said his Facebook post was taken out of context. He insisted no threat was made because he didn’t say he or anyone else was actually going to do it.

“I’m pissed off at the system, OK,” he said, noting that he was worried his family might lose health benefits under the Affordable Care Act. He blames Obama, whom he says was elected to office thanks to the use of a false birth certificate and other identifying documents.

“I apologize for what I said; that’s all I can say,” Marsters told the Sun Journal. “I did it out of frustration against the man.”

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: David Marsters of Sabattus admits he made a mistake when he used a racial slur and posted “Shoot the N*****” atop a picture of President Barack Obama on Facebook recently. “I didn’t say I’m going to do it or someone else is going to do it,” Marsters said during an interview at his home Tuesday evening.