AMITY MATTERSBECAUSE FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS MATTER
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.
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.
The Town Officials (scroll down to see update!!) decided to haul the remains of the twice-burned Town Office to the fields behind Joe Ledger’s house and some of it to the Town Gravel Pit for a third burning. One would think that Joe, the Town Fire Warden, would know this act was illegal since he was supposed to attend some classes when appointed as Fire Warden. He was on the Board of Directors for the Katahdin Valley Waste Disposal District since its inception and is still the alternate representative for the Town. Instead of picking up the telephone and asking the best way to dispose of this material, the Selectmen decided to put the Town at risk by just piling up the debris and burning it. It took four nights to burn all the debris in the Ledger fields! State law requires someone in attendance with tools until the fire is out. Who tended it during the day as it burned and smoldered?
A nonresident called the Department of Environmental Protection with questions about possible pollution of the aquifer resulting from such an action before the burning began. Are you aware The Town Gravel Pit sits over one of the largest aquifers in the State of Maine? Your Selectmen know it! Selectman Glen Clifford has mentioned this numerous times with, what I thought, was great pride. Why ever would you want to run the risk of polluting it?
As you can see from the pictures, the original pile in the Town Pit (public property) contained plastics, siding, and computers. Everett Carson, Director of the Maine Natural Resources Council, said a main concern was possible mercury contamination from computers. Also on the pile were plastic flowerpots and materials from the cemetery. Apparently, on this occasion, the town gravel pit became the town trash pit.
After the DEP contacted the Town, two Selectmen and Tom Hall removed the computers and some of the plastics from the pile in the pit. From the pictures, you can see they did not remove all the plastics. Since the rest of the piles are on private property, they are not open to public inspection so we will never know what burned there.
The timing of the burn seems questionable since the piles sat exposed to the elements for over a week. Was it just a coincidence the local Forest Ranger was on vacation? Or that the burning started after the DEP was called and before they could come and inspect? Lou Pizzuti of the DEP confirmed that they had requested that the material not be burned. When Mr. Pizzuti contacted the forest service, Ranger Crockett told him that the town officials said that the DEP had given them the go ahead to burn. The DEP was quite surprised and unhappy that the Town ignored their request and went ahead with the burning. Between the Selectmen burning illegal materials and lying to the DEP, they have gotten the town in quite a pickle, and a pretty sour one at that! Will they ever admit the truth of their actions? If not, how much more is it going to cost the taxpayers?
According to Mr. Pizzuti, the standard procedure is to shovel the mess up into a transfer container, and then take it to one of two landfills, which are qualified to test the debris for contaminants. After testing, the DEP will make a decision on where the remains are to be sent for final disposal. At the same time, they will make a determination as to the fine assessed against the town. All this because no one would take the time to pick up a telephone and ask what the best thing to do was.
Town Manager, Darrell Williams, said on Friday (the 8 th) that the Town plans to go to court and plead not guilty. When asked who the Town lawyer is he replied that we do not have one. The plan is “to just pay the fine if it is not too much”. The money for the fines will have to come from the taxpayers of this Town. Don't you think a simple phone call would have been cheaper?
At a Selectmen’s meeting a couple of years ago we were told, by the then Chairman of the Board, Joe Ledger, that the laws of Maine do not apply to Amity because we are such a small town. Slamming his fist on the Municipal Officers Manual, he shouted, “We have never gone by this (obscenity) book and are never going to! We will run things here like we always have!” It is quite refreshing to see that they are really not above the law.
Check back often for updates! Once the Forest Service finishes, it will be the DEP’s turn at bat!
Because of our studies in Municipal and State Laws and extensive library on these issues, citizens frequently approach your webmaster and me with questions about the Selectman’s activities. If you have any questions you would like brought before the Selectmen and are either uncomfortable asking yourself or unable to attend the monthly Selectmen’s meetings, please feel free to email the question to Amity Matters and we will ask the Selectmen. We will publish the question and answer from the Selectmen in Amity Matters for you to read. Your name and email address will be confidential if requested.
In Houlton District Court this afternoon, with all the Selectmen present, Town Manager Darrell Williams stepped forward to plead guilty to the charge of “burning prohibited material” brought against the Town of Amity by the Forest Service. Judge Bernard O’Mara levied a fine of $100 against the town. With the added 20% surcharge on fines and $10 awarded to the Victims Compensation Fund, the total cost came to $130.
DEP’s job is to educate citizens, towns, and businesses on waste hazards not just punish them! Amity officials get education.
Selectmen Joe Ledger and Glen Clifford, along with Town Manager Darrell Williams, met with Jeremiah Crockett, Forest Service, and Lou Pizzuti from the Department of Environmental Protection at the Amity Town Office. The Town is definitely in violation of several rules and regulations concerning air quality and improper disposal of construction debris and ash. You cannot transport demolition debris to another site for burning.
Lou said that if someone had just called his office for advice none of this would have happened. Even Barry Higgins, our Code Enforcement Officer, was not consulted on the best way to take care of the debris from the fire. Lou said, “Ignorance of the laws is not excuse and no one is above the law – local, state, or federal.” I feel you really cannot expect our Selectmen to know all the laws, but you would expect them to consult the people they hire that are supposed to have the codes and rules.
The good news is that if we follow the list of steps that DEP is asking the Town to take to clean up the sites properly, DEP in Presque Isle will not take enforcement action against the town. However, we must follow the steps exactly with no deviations what so ever.
Lou had already spoken with Tri-Community Landfill to accept the debris. Pine Tree will provide a container for the disposed materials. Because there is a charge by weight, Lou told us that we could take the clean wood (no painted items) off the pile. We can remove the metal items and properly dispose of those items at a salvage yard or something similar. All paint cans must go in the dumpster as well as plastics, painted wood, and ash. He said that most likely we should only need to dig down a couple of inches before we get to clean soil. We need to take before and after pictures; he would like to come inspect the site before removal of the container in case something else needs to go in. The container must be covered and taken to Tri Community Landfill, it is up to them if they need to test it or not. If tested, the best hope is that it comes back OK; if it comes back as hazardous then it will cost a lot more for disposal. Pay the bill, send receipt to DEP, and that will take care of the problem with DEP. However, other state agencies are watching our case to see how well we comply.
Right now open burning is a privilege that now has strict rules and not a rite of passage as of days gone by, it is a dwindling right as air quality concerns rise. Abusing this privilege by burning prohibited materials hurts all of us. Lou sits on a board of New England states that deals with this issue and fears that in the future this privilege will be revoked.
In the future, anyone, the Town or any citizens, who need to dispose of items that may need special care, then call Barry Higgins, our CEO or the DEP office for advice. All are just great people to talk with. Check out the DEP web site for information, new laws that were passed pertaining to computer and TV disposal. They recently had a Hazardous Waste pickup in Houlton. Call first to get a list of items they are accepting, the times and places they are having a pickup, and take your items in then. Their job is not to punish you; their job is to help you do things right in the first place. One short phone call is a lot cheaper than the cost of a clean up operation! Lou stressed repeatedly that one phone call to him or Barry would have saved this town both money and the embarrassment of having to go to court.
I would like to thank Joe Ledger for the questions he asked at the end of the meeting, because of your questions we received a real education on what you can and cannot do for waste disposal. It was a very interesting discussion. Part of the results of that conversation was that I checked out the DEP web site, not one to go to if you only have a few minutes because there is so much to look at. Which led me to the Maine.gov web site, which meant that I spent more time researching than writing Saturday, which led to the late posting this story. What a wealth of information at your fingertips!
Lou also said that the Town pit is part of a large aquifer and it is part of our job to protect it. Selectman Glen Clifford said he thought it was part of the largest aquifer in the world. With two private wells nearby contamination could be a problem. The sand/salt pile needs at the very least a liner to protect the ground. Your editor has heard from several people that we should look into Kenny Estabrook’s old potato house as a sand/salt storage facility. The positive mentioned was that you could load it from the top and remove the sand/salt from the bottom and it would be covered from the elements. The roof and foundation would need checking; I have not seen it up close but it is an idea worth mentioning.
I have been researching web sites concerned with hazardous waste and will provide links for you as soon as possible. There really is a lot to learn and since so many of the citizens stated on the community survey that was taken last fall that the local environment was very important to you that we need to do what we can to keep it clean. At the Amity/Reed Community Development Advisory Committee meeting when the discussion turned to the disposal of old trailers or buildings our Selectmen stated they were sure they now knew what not to do with them!
I would like to state that Amity Matters is not anti-government. All we have ever asked for is accountability in government, starting at the local level.
We would like to thank the non-resident who called DEP about this problem. Had these piles burned with the computers and other materials still in them, I'm not sure the town's pocketbook would be big enough to pay the fines and cleanup costs.
The Amity Town Office caught fire twice in Three days. The first fire on Monday January 10, 2005 was caused by a faulty heating apparatus. This fire was caught early and extinguished by Town manager Darrell Williams. Darrell had stopped in earlier that morning to start the heater that had been having trouble staying running. After starting the heater, Darrell returned home and called a service technician to come and fix the heater. About a half hour later Darrell was on his way to work in Oakfield where he is also Town Manager, when he decided to check on the heater in Amity. He found flames shooting out of the top of the heater and up the wall. Darrell grabbed a nearby extinguisher and doused that fire. This first fire caused some smoke damage that required airing out of the files and some professional cleaning.
The cleaners had not yet been to the town office when the second fire hit in the early morning hours on January 13, 2005. This fire was spotted by an observant truck driver who saw the flames coming through the roof of the town office. He immediately called the fire department and tried to extinguish the fire with his own extinguisher but the building was too far involved at this time.
This fire took the roof off the building and caused extensive smoke and water damage to the contents of the building. The Maine State Fire Marshall office determined the cause of this fire to be an electric heater placed to close to combustibles (a pile of papers stacked up on the floor). Darrell had been cleaning out the files to air them out and to prepare for the cleaners to come and clean the building. Due to the lost of the heater in the first fire, the selectmen had authorized the use of four electric heaters to heat the office in the interim while they were awaiting an insurance settlement from the first fire to replace the original heating system destroyed in the first fire.
It appears that the second fire was an unfortunate accident. We were very lucky that Houlton Fire Chief Milton Cone was aware of the location of our file cabinets and closed them all before putting too much water to the fire. This move saved most all of our town records and no one was hurt in the fighting of the fire. For this, we are very lucky.
The Amity Selectmen will decide what to do about replacing the building after we get a settlement figure from the insurance company. In the interim, they have rented an office trailer to use as a temporary town office. The town office hours remain the same.