By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — The Loring Central Heating Plant implosion attempt took place months ago on Aug. 13, but issues surrounding the demolition are still being discussed by the Limestone Selectpeople.
During their last meeting on Oct. 19, Town Manager Donna Bernier informed the board that payment owed to the town for services provided during implosion activities at the former air base have been slowly coming in.
She’s been receiving $5,000 a week from the company for the past three weeks, still far from the total billed amount of approximately $49,000. About $28,000 of that total bill was for expenses incurred by the town, including fuel, food, supplies and payroll for members of the Limestone Volunteer Fire Department and officers of the Limestone Police Department. Bernier stated that, as of that evening, the town has received the three $5,000 checks so far from the company and asked the selectpeople their opinion regarding future payments. Bernier also stated that she didn’t want to take funds to pay the workers out of the fire and police budgets in case the town didn’t receive the money.
“I think we need to pay our bills to the businesses first, and once we get the total amount to cover payroll, we need to pay them all at one time,” said Selectperson Chair Fred Pelletier.
Bernier informed the selectpeople of the breakdown of difference between expenses and the total $49,000 bill.
“We billed for $60, but we’re not paying [the employees] $60; everything over [the wages] is going into to be going into the reserve account,” she said.
A large portion of the meeting was conducted during the elected officials’ reports.
“The only comment I have tonight is I’m disgusted with the paving job that’s been done on Church Street,” Selectperson Jimmy Pelletier said, expressing his disbelief that a local company would have done such a “lousy job,” citing that one lane was an inch high than the other lane.
Selectperson Gary O’Neal asked if the paperwork has been received yet for the Community Oriented Police Services Hiring Program Grant through the U.S. Department of Justice allocated for the town; Bernier replied that she believed she would have it for the next meeting. It was announced that the town of Limestone had been allocated the $181,380 in grant funds through the program in late September.
Selectperson Tom Devoe also inquired about the Limestone Police Department.
“I think, gentlemen, that we need to set a policy on police cruisers. They’re leaving the town needlessly, and I’m tired of phone calls and I’m actually tired of watching it,” he said, to which selectperson Jimmy Pelletier voiced his agreement.
“They’re leaving here to go to lunch when there’s places they can use here, and if they don’t they need to bring their lunch. Because every time they’re out of the town for an hour, that’s an hour of coverage we don’t have,” Devoe added.
Jimmy Pelletier agreed with Devoe’s sentiments, saying that if officers are going out of town for unofficial business, it’s as good as leaving their post “and when you abandon your post, you’re leaving the town unprotected and it should be automatic termination — no if’s, no and’s no but’s,” he said. “If you want to leave here, go somewhere else and work. We need to put it in writing and enforce it … and when any vehicle form this community leaves the town of Limestone — police car, rec. department pickup, the highway department pickup — they need to do a log.”
Jimmy Pelletier also stated that the town manager should be able to know details regarding out-of-town trips such as when they went, why they went, how long it took and an odometer reading regarding the instance should be recorded “so if they decide to go on a little joyride a half-hour out of the way when they claim they were running for parts or whatever, you’re going to see it on their odometer reading.”
Fred Pelletier suggested that the board discuss the potential policy with the department heads to obtain their input.
Both Jimmy Pelletier and Devoe disagreed.
“They’re just going to give you — and I’ve heard it a number of times — ‘well we had to go here to get somebody’s statement’ or ‘we had to go there to get somebody’s statement’ or ‘I swung by my house because there was an emergency there,’” Devoe said. “[The policy] needs to come from us, simple as that.”
After further discussion, the selectpeople agreed that the policy would consist of keeping a descriptive log book, submitted to Bernier on a regular basis.
There were two school-related items also on the selectpeople’s agenda; Bernier distributed to the selectpeople packets of information containing the provisions for withdrawing from RSU 39, as entertained by the Limestone board during a Sept. 7 meeting.
The selectpeople also approved a vote allowing RSU 39 to sell a small piece of land from the back of the Limestone Community School to a local landowner.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Rep. Bernard Ayotte (R-Caswell) discussed with the selectpeople the possibility of forming a St. John Valley Regional Planning Commission.
An executive session held early-on during the meeting regarding “an action that hasn’t been resolved but we will be in contact on,” Fred Pelletier said returning the board from executive session.
