An overwhelming majority of voters who packed the Alna Meetinghouse July 15 extinguished a volatile dispute in town by approving the fire department’s ownership of the firehouse.
Considerable debate during the two-hour long meeting that quickly dealt with other warrant articles brought out rationale and facts on both sides of a tug of war between the board of selectmen and fire department.
“I feel vindicated,” said Kathy Pendleton, president of the Alna Volunteer Fire Dept. Inc. “It’s finally settled.”
On July 20, selectmen sealed the town vote by accepting one dollar for sale of the property on Rt. 218 and issued a quitclaim deed. The selectmen also signed a use agreement the fire department drafted based on previous discussions with the board.
“I’m glad we had a town meeting and made a decision,” said Second Selectman Tom Smith. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re moving on and that’s good.”
During the special town meeting, several people voiced concern about the divisive nature of the feud, and many who may have gone into the meeting against the department-petitioned article to deed ownership to the fire department changed their minds.
In the end, most went with a solid ‘yes’ vote as best for the community.
Now the challenge remains for selectmen and the fire department to hammer out a memorandum of understanding on existing firehouse use, as well as that of the new addition in as peaceable a way as possible.
“The people have spoken,” said assistant fire chief Roger Whitney. “I’m pleased. That’s the way the town voted for it back in March. Hopefully this is getting back to where it used to be.”
Whitney said for the past 20 years or so people in town had no question about the ownership, always assuming the department owned it.
State Rep. Les Fossel (R-Alna), a former selectman, supported the argument with a bit of historical background. He said the town did a title search on the property before proceeding with the current structure.
An added incentive to support the department article for its firehouse ownership concerns a $160,000 gift an anonymous donor offered to contribute toward the total construction of the new addition and renovation of the current structure to meet code requirements.
Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask said he doubts the person would be willing to donate the funds if the town owns the land because he made the offer with the understanding the fire department owns the property.
Second Selectman Tom Smith led the charge in opposition to the department’s ownership basing it on information he garnered from town files indicating the town passed an article accepting $300 for the property in 1950.
In fact, First Selectman Billie Willard, speechless about the outcome of the vote following the meeting, later said the issue of town ownership came up about five years ago when she first became selectmen. One of the selectmen at the time told her to have the town’s deed re-recorded in the county Registry of Deeds.
“It was miss-indexed,” she said. “I could have filed that a couple of years ago. I have no doubt in my mind it was filed. Tom read the warrant article when the town accepted the land for $300.”
A day or two before the meeting, Willard said she discovered an entry in a town ledger noting the town’s acceptance of the $300.
Willard said she thought the facts might prompt voters to turn down the department’s two articles, one for ownership and the other for leasing the property if the first article failed, and vote for the board’s article for a lease with conditions.
Nevertheless, Willard said, “I wanted the largest number to make the decision and they did, and I’m happy.”
Willard spoke about the drastic changes in small town government in recent years with things being under the microscope. “The transparency of municipal government is way out there,” she said.
Fire department member Peter Christine, who writes grants for the department, sees things a bit differently and touched on something meeting-goers seemed to catch as well.
Christine views the way small towns deal with business in the context of face-to-face relationships as the way to go in getting things accomplished in an amicable manner rather then a confrontational approach. In other words, harmonious relationships and person-to-person dealings take precedent over a more impersonal issue-oriented approach, in his estimation.
People new to a community like Alna ought to take the time to listen and learn from the past and how longtime residents relate before they start trying to change things and avoid misunderstandings, he said.
“It (fire department) is all town residents,” he said. “The fire department is the town.”
The private ownership issue vs. public ownership plays into the picture as far as he is concerned.
“They (department members) have developed it as a sense of home,” he said. “That pride is huge. Everybody pitches in with them. You learn group dynamics.”
Voters approved $71,543 to be raised and appropriated for the solid waste disposal account. The vote funded the town’s use of the Wiscasset transfer station and followed a suggestion to look into use of the Nobleboro transfer station at an estimated $30,000 cost instead.
The town voted to add another $6500 to raise and appropriate for the valuation account to perform the annual valuation update. The town also approved moving the remainder of the amount in the sand and salt shed maintenance account to be used on necessary repairs and the remainder of the amount in the culvert reserve account plus interest to the general highway/culverts account.
Voters approved raising and appropriating the amount of money to cover the principal and interest incurred on the fire station addition loan for the fiscal year 2009.
Voters also approved raising and appropriating $200 to give emergency management director Jim Bruce an additional $200 for a total $300 stipend.
The meeting closed with no discussion on the last two articles considered moot after the vote to support the fire department’s request for ownership, and the gavel went down for adjournment around 9:15 p.m.
