LIMESTONE, Maine — Three resignations received board approval during the Sept. 5 meeting of the Limestone Board of Selectpeople, whittling the five-person board down to three and leaving the town without a director of the Parks and Recreation Department.
In addition, Town Clerk Marlene Durepo submitted a certified petition signed by 186 residents for the recall of current selectpeople Tom Devoe, Gary O’Neal and Jesse Philbrick.
Submitting their resignations were former Limestone selectpeople Danny Gahagan Sr. and Jimmy Pelletier as well as Parks and Recreation Director Amanda Brooker.
Brooker is now employed by RSU 39 as a physical education/health teacher at Teague Park Elementary School/Limestone Community School, as approved by the RSU 39 School Board on Aug. 22.
Gahagan and Pelletier submitted their resignations to the town on Aug. 16 and 17 respectively, but the resignations were not effective until they received board approval at the last meeting, which Gahagan attended as an audience member. Gahagan and Pelletier each cited their own reasons for stepping down, and both resignations following the contested Aug. 15 selectpeople’s meeting.
Shortly after the Aug. 15 meeting of the Limestone Board of Selectpeople, a petition began circulating throughout the town to recall board members Pelletier, Devoe, Philbrick and O’Neal from their elected positions on the Limestone Board of Selectpeople; the petition began circulating after Gahagan Sr. had submitted his written resignation to the town office.
During the Aug. 15 meeting, O’Neal, Devoe and Philbrick swung the vote in favor of terminating the town’s contract with Fort Fairfield for shared services of Fire Chief Paul Durepo — a decision that was reversed days later during a special board meeting on Aug. 20. The decision to terminate Durepo’s contract came two meetings after the board voted unanimously to not re-appoint Limestone’s Police Chief Stacey Mahan as head of the police department — a decision the selectpeople also rescinded.
According to the ordinance for the recall of elected selectmen of the town of Limestone, the selectmen have 10 days from the Sept. 5 meeting to order an election by secret ballot that must be held in no less that 45 days and no more than 60 days from the time of the meeting. The two-page ordinance, adopted by voters in 2010, was explained to the selectpeople by Town Clerk Durepo.
Durepo said she was expecting a written response by the selectpeople within 10 days.
The board unanimously approved a motion to table action on the certified petition and send all materials involved down to the attorney general’s office in Augusta for a legal opinion.
According to Town Manager Donna Bernier as of Monday afternoon, tabling action on the recall petition does not change the necessity for the selectpeople to set an election date within 10 days of the meeting.
The disputed Aug. 15 decision to terminate the fire chief’s contract was brought up once more during the Sept. 5 meeting. Philbrick, who made the original motion, expressed that the minutes submitted for board approval from the Aug. 15 meeting were inaccurate.
Stating that he had reviewed the tape of the Aug. 15 meeting three times, Philbrick requested that the record be corrected to reflect that his motion was simply to terminate the contract — not to hire a chief or share a chief.
“I want that stricken from the record, because that’s not what I said,” he told Town Manager Bernier.
During the elected officials’ report portion of the Aug. 15 meeting, Philbrick initially stated:
“We got a contract with Fort Fairfield and it has lapsed for two years for the fire chief’s deal, but anyway, we ought to do something with that. I think there’s a savings here. We’re currently paying $21,100 for Paul’s services, and I feel that we can hire a chief for around 10, hire our own chief with our department. I’d like to have you fellows just think on it. The budget committee, they want us to save money, and this is a way to do it. You can save yourselves $11,000 pretty easy. I think I’m going to make a motion that we look into this and ought to terminate the contract as of Sept. 1 and if we can save ourselves some money, save it.”
The original motion was altered through a fair amount of board discussion, including changing the date accompanying the motion back to Oct. 15. As discussion on the topic continued, then-Selectperson Chairman Jimmy Pelletier restated the motion to direct the conversation.
“The motion is made and seconded to terminate our joint fire chief situation as of Oct. 15 and to hire one for the town of Limestone,” Pelletier said during the Aug. 15 meeting.
When Bernier questioned Philbrick on Sept. 5 as to what he wanted corrected, he explained that his motion was just to terminate the contract and didn’t include any wording regarding the chief.
Later in the meeting, during her town manager’s report, Bernier also informed the selectpeople that they had received a new contract with the town of Fort Fairfield for the fire chief’s services. Bernier said she hoped the board would be able to approve the contract by their next meeting, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19, at the Limestone Municipal Building.
hopefully the selectpeople wont renew contract
I think a large missconception about the $21,000 is that Chief Durepo is being paid $21k by Limestone. That isnt the case. Limestone pays Fort Fairfield $21,000 a year for a fire chief. If Fort wanted to hire Smokey the Bear as cheif they could. On top of that, to save the town $11,000 would allocate the budget for fire chief at $10,ooo. So to get the fire cheif a truck, insurance, salary and on down the line at $10,000 would be a great accomplishment, one so great that these board members would defiently deserve a place in Congress to help turn this country around.
We’d be better off with Smokey the Bear as a Fire Chief than the one we got. That Chief Durepo came door to door in uniform in the chief vehicle to have citizens of Limestone sign the petition. He has been behind it from Day 1. The selectmen will NOT sign the contract, Durepo is on borrowed time.
I would hope that you would be willing to sign a statement to that effect. We need honest citizens to do what is right and stand up for our town and our elected officials.
Everyone knows that Loyal Subject Danny and King Paul were the one’s circulating that petition and everyone knows that it is ethically wrong. Loyal Subject Danny was still a selectman when he was doing such business against the town and King Paul, well there is a good example of a spoiled child having a hissy fit because he didn’t get his own way.
You and I Dick should remind everyone that we don’t run this town based on a Monarchy…we elected the selectmen and they are trying to make sure our tax rate doesn’t skyrocket with King Paul and his misuse of all things public.
Limestone just purchased a truck for the Fire Department and insures it so I don’t think that buying a truck is a valid argument. Taxpayers in Limestone complain all the time about taxes going up year after year but then they also complain when the selectmen try to come up with solutions to the problem. When is everyone going to realize that we either will have to cut some services or pay the higher tax bill?
Now I am not saying that I am all for cutting our municipal services but we need to cut from somewhere and no one in this town seems to want to step up to the plate and give any better ideas. We need to get some new people on our board with new ideas. People who are not going to quit because they don’t get their own way, how does that help the town?This town looks ridiculous right now. We are getting ready to set a bad precedence here by trying to vote out our remaining selectmen. If this goes through, anytime in the future that someone doesn’t like a decision that our elected board decides on, we can just circulate a petition and get the board removed. Who worth while is going to run for the board with that hanging over their heads? I am all for being able to remove a select-person for wrong doing, something that they could be prosecuted for. None of the remaining selectmen have broken any laws.
So the fire cheif will drive a fire truck around (as in big truck, not pickup?)
No Jesse that would be ridiculous! Limestone just bought a brand new crew cab pickup for the Fire Department. Also I think that if you check past records you would find that Volunteer Fire Chief’s in Limestone never had a personal vehicle provided to them. $10K would pay the base salary for the volunteer chief and since the position would be volunteer no benefits would apply.
The citizens can petition all they want, unless something illegal has been done, it’s pretty hard to recall a selectman, as per Maine State Law.
When did reporters stop investigating what they write and start writing articles based on quotes by a select group of people in their inner circle? I often find that Ms. Bazinet’s articles are very one sided and lack research or facts.
I also find it peculiar that she keeps dragging the situation with the police chief back into these articles. You didn’t see Stacey going out and whining to get people to sign a petition. He got a lawyer and handled it privately. I can also tell you that since that happened and he was called out that our police coverage “in town” has improved. Ms. Bazinet may think that what the selectmen did was wrong in that case but it sure did help to get the problem fixed!
Ms. Bazinet, where is your research into the fire contract? You were very quick to quote that the Town of Fort Fairfield might get mad and take their toys away but you failed to look at the contract with Fort Fairfield and failed to mention that none of said toys are part of any contract that Limestone has with them. Fort Fairfield has a contract with LDA that is separate from the Limestone contract and it is LDA who has Fort Fairfield fire fighters and the Fort Fairfield truck, not Limestone!
I have heard from many affluent Limestone taxpayers who support the selectmen but you didn’t get any input from any of them, only reported on what Loyal Subject Danny and King Paul gave you for quotes. Journalism should not be one sided…or are you afraid that you might lose your ride to town meetings (I heard that you showed up at the last one with Loyal Subject Danny)?
As for this article, the selectmen sent the petition for legal opinion. Do you actually expect them to make a motion to throw themselves off the board without finding out if the petitions are even legal? Ms. Bazinet, where is your report about how well this went when Van Buren tried to do this to their selectmen? Instead you choose to report in favor of a select few that you are known to be friends with…where is your journalistic integrity?
Ms. Bazinet reports for the Aroostook Republican; her article was shared with the Bangor Daily. She does a good job covering a variety of news. The Aroostook Republican is a weekly newspaper with limited staff, who do more than just report, they also serve as photographers and do the layout of the paper for publication each week – unlike the Bangor Daily which separates the duties of reporters and layout. Weekly papers don’t typically have the manpower to do extensive digging into a topic but rather cover issues at hand with what information is available at the time. Ms. Bazinet and others working in the weekly newspaper world do the best they can with the limited time they have to handle all their duties, while trying to provide readers with information on current events in as timely a manner as possible. Aroostook County has a limited population and I’m sure all reporters who work here know or are related to people in the communities they serve. As for this article, Ms. Bazinet was covering a meeting, not writing a term paper on Limestone/Van Buren’s history.
Really, I have never seen a more pathetic cope out! Doing the best they can…how about reporting the entire truth and not just one sided crap! If the Aroostook Republican doesn’t have enough time or manpower to report the entire truth then they should stop reporting! When you report only half of a story or a story based on hear say instead of facts, you can sway public perception of a situation very easily, especially in favor of your “buddies”. I have no respect for Ms. Bazinet as a reporter, nor do I have any respect for her editors for allowing this to happen. Wake up Aroostook Republican – there are people who know the real truth and will get it out if you won’t!