WILTON — On Tuesday, Nov. 1, the Board of Selectpersons announced Sgt. Ethan Kyes as the interim Chief of Police for a period of six months.

A decision will then be made on a permanent replacement for former Police Chief Heidi Wilcox, who announced her Nov. 1 retirement in early September.

Stephen Charles was also at the meeting. He was promoted to Sgt. to replace Kyes. Charles joined the Wilton Police Department in August after serving the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department for 22 years. Charles, who also applied for the Police Chief position stated he will support Kyes to the best of his ability. “I have a lot of faith and respect for Ethan,” Charles said.

Selectpersons unanimously approved Town Manager Perry Ellsworth collaborating with Chris Lynch of Matrix Design Group for a state grant for the town of Wilton. This grant, if approved would mean Wilton town residents will have access to high-speed broadband at an affordable rate in the foreseeable future.

According to Lynch, as the grant program moved from ConnectMaine to Maine Connectivity Authority, MCA changed the parameters of the grant to include customers who do not have access to internet speeds of 100 megabytes and higher. Based on Lynch’s assessment, the town of Wilton meets this requirement.

The application will be filed on Nov. 9. Lynch approached the board to get permission to include these newly eligible homes in the application. East Wilton was not included, as they are covered by a National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) grant that was given to Consolidated Communications for Franklin County.

The purpose of both grant programs is to build infrastructure and provide reliable, high speed, and affordable broadband to communities. According to Lynch, Matrix Design Group would use the grant plus their own funds to install the infrastructure and provide the service to the town of Wilton as a municipality service.

Wilton Fire Chief Sonny Dunham approached the Board of Selectpersons with an offer from Franklin County Emergency Management Agency for a trailer that would be refurbished for the Fire Safety Program. According to Dunham, the program teaches kids how to react and escape when in a fire situation.

“For the last 10 to 12 years,” Dunham stated, “we had a trailer that we were using from Chesterville. It’s called a smoke trailer and it’s for the kids. It’s to show the kids how to react if the smoke alarm goes off and how to exit the building, to go to your meeting place and stuff. It’s a big hit in our school system.”

According to Dunham, the smoke trailer from Chesterville is no longer operational and he has been searching for a replacement.

Dunham met with Director Tim Hardy of Franklin County EMA. EMA held a meeting on Nov. 1 to donate a disaster supply trailer as a replacement.

“The trailer is chock a block full of disaster supplies,” Durham said, “That’s what it was used for.”

“We are gonna have everything in that trailer,” Dunham continued. “So, some stuff might be good, some stuff might not be.” Durham asserted that any outdated supplies from the trailer will be disposed of appropriately. Dunham believes he can use community donations and volunteer labor to do most of the refurbishing work. Dunham also wants to make the trailer available to the rest of the county to use in their own fire safety programs.

The Board voted unanimously to accept the donation for the Wilton Fire Department.

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