LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen Monday voted unanimously to allow the transfer station to open today, in anticipation of its July 1 closing.
The station is scheduled to close early on Friday, June 30. It will close around noon instead of 4 p.m. to give station manager Fred Nadeau and Highway Department foreman Denis Castonguay time to bring the trash to Jay before the Jay dump closes for the weekend.
Castonguay Monday asked selectmen to let him and Nadeau open the transfer station today, when it is usually closed, to give residents extra time to dispose of trash before it closes, possibly for good, on Friday.
Selectmen announced a number of other changes to town services at Monday’s meeting.
Because Livermore Falls has no contract with Jay allowing individual residents to dispose of trash in Jay, there will be no trash disposal service for individuals between July 1 and July 11, at least.
But selectmen voted Monday to use contingency money to pay tipping fees for private haulers to bring trash to Jay. There is a contract governing the private haulers, Chairwoman Julie Deschesne told selectmen. She noted that people who normally take trash to the transfer station are welcome to hire private haulers and to do it after July 1.
Selectmen and town employees received a letter on Friday telling them all town departments will be closed as of July 1. Since it was written by Town Manager Martin Puckett, who is on his honeymoon, no one at Monday’s meeting was able to explain the details of why all departments, even those voters did fund, have to close.
But Deschesne, who has been speaking with the Maine Municipal Association, said MMA representatives have told her that without a guarantee of money to pay employees, employees must not work, even if they volunteer.
Exceptions to the rule are fire, police and dispatch services, she said. They are allowed to remain open on an emergency-basis only.
Police Chief Ernest Steward asked if covering the annual Fourth of July parade was considered an emergency. The parade, actually set for July 3, will come through town whether or not police are there, he said.
Selectmen voted unanimously to allow police to cover the parade.
“We’ll be cool until the town meeting,” resident Jim Purington said, gesturing as if to calm people down.
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