Special Selectman’s Meeting
July 19, 2005

The meeting opened at 6:59 pm with thirteen citizens present, an excellent turnout.

Chairman Glen Clifford said the special meeting had been called to explain what was going on with DEP and the Forest Service. The Forest Service had been taken care of today. Town Manager Darrell Williams explained the town had pled guilty to the charge of burning prohibited material and received a $100 fine. Darrell also said that Lou Puzzuti would be at the town office at 10:30 on Friday. He will visit the sites and then decide what to do after that.

Next on the agenda was the roadwork. Glen said that he and Darrell needed to get together to go over some paperwork. He also said that the roadwork does not need to be advertised. Darrell can just call two or three locals and have them come take a look. Colin’s grader needs work and his driver has been ill but he will get to us as soon as he can.

Then there was a report on an Animal Control case.

Glen asked when tax assessor Herb Dickey was coming. Darrell said maybe next week as he was almost done in Oakfield.

There was discussion on the fire account; Pat Miller offered to help with things that may have been purchased while Margaret Frye was in office. Pat often helped Margaret in the office.

Glen asked about the tax workshop Darrell had recently attended. Darrell discussed some of the new information he had picked up. Glen and Darrell will get together to go over the books from the auditor. The auditor recommended they run trial balances and that two people go over them for more checks & balances; fewer chances for errors.

The Board went into Executive session at 7:07 pm to discuss a personnel matter with Darrell. At 7:14 pm, the board returned. Glen said they had asked Darrell for a higher level of performance. The holidays that Darrell is to have off will be listed in the Town Report and he will have better communication with the Selectmen when needing an extra day off. Darrell said the board does not recognize the many times he comes in for people when he is supposed to be closed.

Then came Citizen Input, all of which were complaints directed at Amity Matters. Biased, slanderous, liars, one-sided, etc.

Glen Williams claimed he had been misquoted. His remarks were edited because our advisor said the rest of his statement could be considered inflammatory. We realize that sometimes people say things to make themselves feel important or in a moment of anger, that is why we only quoted part of his statement. It just illustrated the attitude going around that nothing wrong had been done, the only thing wrong was that it was exposed.          

When asked why the editor had not contacted the Board concerning the issue, I told them I had. Glen Clifford, Chairman of the Board, had said the Board did not make the decision to haul off and burn the remains and at that point, he said he did not know of DEP’s involvement. So Darrell Williams, the Town Manager, was asked about the matter. Then the DEP was contacted for answers that Darrell did not have. I also contacted the Maine Natural Resources Council for information of what the biggest dangers to the environment, especially to the aquifer, are from the disposal of computers, plastics, etc. I think that qualifies as doing your homework and looking at more than one side. If you can think of another source I should have checked; please let me know and I will check it out.    

Glen Clifford said that they had done a good job getting the prohibited materials out of the piles. He said after sitting in the cellar all winter exposed to the elements it was difficult to sort. He said they did it to save the taxpayer money because to sort the materials on site you would have had to have five trucks sitting around instead of just one truck.

Gary Hall asked why the photographer could not show pictures of Tom’s truck with the computers and other things sitting in it. The picture has been set up waiting for posting so we could get the truth first. It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce that Tom really did haul off the items for free. We were taken to task for refusing to print a rumor that he had been paid twice (once to pick it up and once to haul it to the transfer station), we said we were going to wait and ask for the truth at the next Selectman’s meeting then post the truth not just rumors.

The meeting closed at 7:35 pm, just minutes before the thunderstorm broke with a downpour.

Thank you to everyone who checked the site yesterday, I apologize for the late posting. The severe thunderstorms of the evening kept me off the computer Tuesday night. Your web designer works at the Experimental Computer Lab at University of Maine at Presque Isle on Wednesday as part of his internship, so he was unavailable to post the results of the meeting.

 Kudos to Thomas Hall, good deed confirmed at meeting.

Amity Matters would like to thank Thomas Hall for donating his truck and services to help remove and properly dispose of the computers and other material that was removed from the debris before burning.