LIVERMORE FALLS — The Livermore Falls Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 Monday to begin talking with Jay officials about regionalizing the fire departments in Jay and Livermore Falls.

“I think we need to keep the doors open to regionalization,” Livermore Falls Selectman Ron Chadwick said.

Town Manager Kristal Flagg said she had met with the fire chiefs of the two towns and Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere to discuss how equipment and staff could be shared.

“They were going to ask their board in Jay if there was any interest in sharing a building,” Flagg said. “There was interest.” 

Chadwick and Livermore Falls Selectman Jeff Bryant agreed to serve on a fire department regionalization committee.

With the closure of the Livermore Falls Fire Station due to structural issues, the Fire Department has been left without a place to hold meetings. Flagg said she thought a room downstairs in the Treat Memorial Library would be a good place for them to meet, and that the library’s trustees had no problem with them doing so.

Selectmen agreed to let the Fire Department meet in the library.

The board signed a one-year lease agreement for the Fire Department to house its utility and ladder trucks in Livermore Falls resident Peter Castonguay’s garage at the corner of Karn Road and Park Street in Livermore Falls. Flagg said even though it was a one-year agreement, Castonguay agreed they could be stored there longer if the town needed the space.

Fayette resident and George Bunten Post 10 American Legion member Donald Simoneau has been spearheading a project for a little more than a year to repair a cannon at Union Park. He came before selectmen Monday to give an update.

New wheels and axles have been put on, and steel work will be done, Simoneau said. He mentioned that the cannon will be relocated to a welder’s shop from now until next spring for the steel work to take place.

Right now, there is $1,012.01 in the cannon account, which should be enough to finish the work, Simoneau said. Selectmen approved painting the black and gray cannon an olive color to conform with its original paint color.

Simoneau said he was grateful for all of the donations he received to do the work on the cannon. 

“These are the greatest communities around,” Simoneau said. “These communities come together like no other communities I know.”

bmatulaitis@sunmediagroup.net

“I think we need to keep the doors open to regionalization.” — Ron Chadwick, Livermore Falls selectman