A Gilead official says the town routinely bills non-residents for emergency calls.
PARIS – The SAD 17 School District is balking on paying the town of Gilead for its help after students on a weekend camping trip got waylaid by a snowstorm.
“I regret that we do not believe that these charges are our responsibility,” Supt. Mark Eastman wrote to the town after receiving a $1,000 bill from the Gilead Fire Department. Eastman released the letter at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
The Maine Warden Service, which incurred over $3,600 in costs for the search and rescue operation, has not yet decided whether to bill the district, according to Mark Latti, spokesperson for the warden’s service.
Eastman wrote that he did not want to “create any ill will with our neighbors” in Gilead, but “we did not, however, request any assistance from the town.”
The district’s contact was with the Maine Warden Service, and “our understanding was that services which were provided (by Gilead) were simply neighbor-to-neighbor support,” Eastman said.
“We were surprised when they showed up” to the pickup point on Route 113, about a mile from Route 2, Eastman said of the Gilead firefighters. The eight high school students and two teachers, part of a Wilderness Leadership class, got caught unexpectedly by the worst early winter storm in 100 years Dec. 6 and 7, said Eastman. A warden’s service plane spotted the campers Monday morning, walking single-file on the road, which is not plowed in the winter.
The standard invoice, handwritten by Gilead Fire Chief Ken Cole, itemized costs for a three-and-a-half hour response by Gilead firefighters on Dec. 8. The bill seeks $300 for 30 man hours, $262.50 for the response by a squad truck, $262.50 for a bucket loader, and $175 for a snowmobile and sled.
Cole could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Gilead Administrative Assistant Beverley Corriveau said the town routinely bills non-residents for emergency response calls. She said Cole was planning to respond in writing to Eastman’s letter to further explain the charges.
Corriveau said the town only has 157 residents, and an annual fire department budget of $8,000.
“We bill out all the time for accidents on Route 2,” she said. The nine miles of Route 2 that runs through Gilead from the New Hampshire border to West Bethel are poorly maintained, and there are many accidents as a result.
Corriveau said the county’s dispatching center toned out the Gilead Fire Department to assist the warden service with the rescue. It is not the town’s responsibility to maintain Route 113, a state highway, she said. The bucket loader was needed to clear snow to keep the road open to the gate, she said.
She said the amount of manpower used was standard in such a response.
Eastman said in a telephone interview on Wednesday he is “reserving judgment” until the billing questions are clarified.
Latti said the warden service’s expenses in the search and rescue operation, which totaled $3,631.79, included over $2,500 in wages for wardens, reimbursement for 1,160 miles driven in trucks, use of snowmobiles and $750 for use of a warden service plane.
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