Budget board puts fire, rescue, highway, transfer station $$$ under the gun

It's been almost a quarter of a century since Lebanon voters shut down town government, basically firing three selectmen, two code-enforcement officers and the animal control officer among others. They did it again 10 years later.

If the town's budget committee has its druthers, it just might happen again.

The board voted recently not to appropriate funds for Lebanon Fire and EMS, the road department and road commissioner's salary, the transfer station and the code enforcement officer.

They also voted 8-0 (one abstention) against the default budget which would effectively mean those departments would shut down July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.

Most budget committee members have remained tight-lipped on the subject, including Budget Committee chairperson Jeri Basko, but one said recently on condition of anonymity that the only way to fundamentally change the way things are done is by taking away the funding of departments that there are concerns with.

They also said there wasn't a lot of discussion between budget panel members about their motives in the voting, just a show of hands indicating their preference when it came time to vote.

And judging by the voting, one of the departments they are most concerned with is Lebanon Fire and EMS, with the board voting 7-0 against funding its $450,000 budget. Two budget board members, Basko and Corinna Cole, abstained.

Voting against funding were former fire chief Skip Wood, board secretary and former chair Nancy Neubert, former selectman Judy Churchard, Bettie Harris-Howard, former town clerk Laura Bragg, road commissioner candidate Chris Gilpatrick and Sean Bright.

Lebanon Fire and EMS Chief Dan Meehan told The Lebanon Voice last week that he was "surprised" by the budget committee's rejection, adding, "I kept the budget the same as last year (I gave up the EMA budget) which passed and the committee voted it down this year."

However, it should be noted that while taxpayers last year voted to separate the town's two first-responder entities and OK'd total budgets of some $450,000 that included funding of per diem and on-call responders for both fire and rescue, Meehan only installed those positions on the Rescue side, which some have indicated should've realized a $100,000 savings.

Meehan has repeatedly refused further comment on why the budget doesn't reflect what appears to have been the $100,000 savings, or for that matter, why the budget reflects an increase in his own salary from $2,400 a month to $900 a week.

Selectmen, meanwhile, approved Fire and EMS, transfer station and CEO budgets as well as all the highway department budgets including paving money and the road commissioner salary.

Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson had little comment on the budget committee's round rejection of town department budget requests, but said if voters followed their cue, selectmen and the town would have to scramble to put something together by July 1, making the pushing forward of the town vote to May instead of June seem almost prescient.

Thompson said if the voters don't authorize the budgets and also reject the default budget referendum, come the start of the new fiscal year, there will be no money to spend.

Ironically, the default budget referendum was added after the last shutdown.

It should also be noted that the budget committee did unanimously approve the general government budget, 9-0, so the town, itself, wouldn't likely shut down, only the affected departments.