WATERFORD – A month after her 30-day probationary period ended, the employment status of transfer station manager Rockie Graham remains uncertain because both selectmen don’t agree on her performance. The third selectman’s position is vacant.

At the weekly board meeting Wednesday morning, Chairman Norman Rust made a motion to terminate Graham’s employment, effective immediately.

Graham wasn’t there because she works at the Bethel transfer station on Wednesdays.

Since the motion was made in open session, though, the six residents present were able to state their opinions.

Rust broached the subject of firing Graham by recommending that the three-member staff of the transfer station be reduced to two after the busy summer season. He said he had discussed this with two of the staff members but not with Graham.

Selectman David Marston asked Rust which employee he planned to cut. Rust answered that he would deal with that in a separate agenda item. Like the residents in attendance, Marston did not have a copy of Rust’s agenda.

Rust moved on to his next item, addressing Graham’s employment.

“I’ve had some complaints about her continuing public relations. She has been warned about this well over a 30-day period,” he said. In May, selectmen put Graham on a 30-day probation after receiving complaints about her customer service.

Rust continued that he had talked with the transfer station’s two other employees, Bob Kimball and Chris Purdy, about Graham’s job performance. From those conversations, Rust concluded that Graham was not capable of doing the lifting that her job requires.

Citing those two reasons, Rust said, “I’m going to make a recommendation that she be terminated effective immediately.”

Resident Chuck Truman then recommended that selectmen consider Purdy for promotion to Graham’s position.

Tony Butterall was less comfortable with the proceedings, asking if selectmen shouldn’t have another meeting with Graham. “I don’t think that’s necessary,” Rust answered. “The other one wasn’t too productive.”

Rust then made a formal motion to terminate Graham’s employment. Marston did not second the motion.

“So where does that leave us, David?” Rust asked. “I’m not going to withdraw my motion.”

But Rust did withdrew his motion and asked Marston if he wanted to write Graham a formal letter to reinstate her after her probation. Graham had requested a letter at the selectmen’s July 17 meeting, and the board had agreed to write one for her.

Wednesday, though, Rust apparently changed his mind. “I don’t believe that she is functioning up to her speed as a manager,” he said. He explained that Graham has asked for a fan for the transfer station, and that she comes to the town office for paper towels when the station runs out. A better manager, he said, would take care of these issues without the town’s help.

Marston voted to write a formal letter to reinstate Graham. Rust voted against, and no action was taken.

Rust addressed his fellow selectman after the vote, saying “David, I want to say that I’m very disappointed that you didn’t stand up to the plate and take a stand on this issue.”

Graham said in a phone interview after the meeting that selectmen knew when she was hired two years ago that she cannot lift heavy loads. She said that both of the men she works with are taller than her and easily able to lift anything that she cannot.

She said she was shocked at the complaint about getting paper towels from the town office.

“I was told to go to the town for paper towels,” she said. In the past, selectmen asked her to get them at the town office, which buys them in bulk for the office, fire station and transfer station, she said.

Her request for a fan, she said, was actually a request to hook up the engine which runs the second compactor at the transfer station. In addition to powering a second compactor, the engine would allow her to use the fan she already has. Selectmen had already approved powering the engine at the meeting Wednesday.