Many warrant articles at Whitefield’s town meeting Saturday provoked debate, but it was winter road maintenance that heated up the room of approximately 115 voters.
“Oh boy, here we go,” one man was overheard saying.
Board of Selectmen chair Steve McCormick expected the questions and complaints. “We’ve had a lot of difficulties with plowing and sanding since November,” he said. The select board, which gained two new members during polling, will deliberate whether to continue or discontinue the town’s contract, now in the second of three years, with Steve McGee Construction, of Gardiner, McCormick said.
Beth Vigue thanked McCormick for fielding complaints through the winter about dangerous road conditions. “We drove home in six to eight inches of snow on the Cooper Road,” and on glare ice another time, she said.
George Hendsbee, of Mills Road, said he had to use his tractor to open up his section of Rt. 218 at 2 a.m. during a midwinter storm. “The road was totally impassable,” he said. Hendsbee was one of several to suggest that a contractor should be required to have a grader for winging back snow.
Should McGee be found in breach of his contract, McCormick said the agreement would be rewritten and the contract would go out to bid.
There were no objections to appropriating $114,000 more for regular road maintenance. “Our gravel roads haven’t been surfaced in a long time,” said McCormick. In recent years, he added, road money has been used “to ease the pain of taxes. We can’t do it anymore.”
Surprisingly, $10,000 for firefighter stipends (down from the original $15,000 two years ago) and increases in fire officials’ salaries escaped amendment. Figures for both lines were included in the town officers’ pay article (4), not under the fire and rescue service budget article. A motion made from the floor later on to reconsider Article 4 failed to get traction.
The fire department, however, did lose $1350 that was previously earmarked for Civil Defense and forest fires. The transfer to a contingency emergency fund was inadvertently left off the warrant and a proposed amendment to put that money and any other fire department surplus into the contingency fund failed. Several voters were uneasy with letting surplus up to $10,000 roll over into the fund.
Assistant fire chief Scott Higgins said, “I don’t remember any conversation about the fire department operating money being rolled over.” His understanding was that the $1350 only would be converted to a fund to supply food to the new station as a warming shelter in case of disaster or for extra expenses in the event of an extensive forest fire. Otherwise the sum would disappear.
McCormick defended the intent of having any remaining fire department budget roll over into such a fund rather than tempting the department to expend its surplus before the end of the year.
David Roper opposed the amendment. “It looks like a savings account for emergencies in the fire department,” he said. Tony Marple agreed, saying townspeople will come forward to support fire department needs without such an account.
The entire amount approved for Article 15 was $125,018, factoring in $73,600 for the fire and rescue operating budget, and debt service of $20,679 for a fire truck payment and $30,739 for the central fire station.
Other debate centered on the “poor pay” selectmen receive. Salaries were cut for the second year in a row, with the chair expected to receive $4000 and the four others $3000 or $2000, depending on longevity. The line is capped at $14,000.
McCormick said cutting by one-third the hours of the town office assistant position “may require some shifting for the staff, and the work might be slower getting done.”
Budget committee member Barry Tibbetts defended the reductions by saying, “We’re in tough budget conditions.” While the amount selectmen receive may not be justifiable, there are two more board members to pay this year. “This is the best we can do as a town right now.”
McCormick noted that town revenues are down $217,525 from what they were last year.
Toward the close of the three-hour-plus meeting, the remaining voters amended Article 30 by restoring $2500 to the amount the Whitefield Cemetery Corporation originally requested, bumping the sum to $5000. Also included in the article were $1000 for decorating solders’ graves and $2250 for town cemeteries.
Corporation member Phil Russell said more than two-thirds of the graves in Whitefield Cemetery wouldn’t be mowed without the extra money because they lack perpetual care designation. “I know times are tight but we’re only asking $2500 be added,” he said.
An attempt to move $1000 from cemeteries to the food pantry failed but voters amended the food bank article when it came up for debate. Instead of the $1500 recommended, $3000 was voted to be raised and appropriated.
Earl Lemieux, who manages the pantry with his wife, said 64 families are being served. That is the same number as a year ago February.
Malinda Caron argued, “If we can give $2500 to graves, then we can give $3000 to feed our children.”
McCormick said $1200 is left in the food bank account for the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Changes made on the meeting floor added $4000 to the $772,000 budget, which, as originally proposed, was up $39,000 over last year.
In presenting bouquets of flowers to the parents, Sanderson said, “When we raise our children, the last thing we expect is that we’re raising them to go off to war.”
Also honored was former town fire chief Jim Brann. Selectman Frank Ober, presenting a plaque, commended Brann for 20 years of service in both the fire and rescue service. “Your quiet, reassuring presence on any emergency scene led the town through a challenging era,” Ober said.
