Fire and EMS, CEO, transfer get OKs at Town Meeting

LEBANON - It took a little less than two hours for Lebanon to wade through its first Open Town Meeting in recent history with all three revised budgets passing easily.

As employees of Lebanon's Fire and EMS Department looked on, town residents addressed the first-responder budget first with several voicing concerns over the fire chief's full-time pay and how the budget had increased over recent years.

One resident sought to amend the budget by dropping the overall bottom line to $390,000 from the current $418,000 in hopes that selectmen would then reduce the chief's pay to part time to avoid pulling back on per diem shifts.

But that amendment failed, and after about 40 more minutes of discussion among residents and a short summation of dire consequences as to what would happen if there were no budget passed by Lebanon Chief Dan Meehan, a paper ballot vote was cast with the revised budget passing, 102-42.

The other two budgets, including CEO and Transfer Station, passed easily on a show of hands, despite a failed attempt by resident and The Lebanon Voice editor Harrison Thorp to reduce the CEO budget to $36,608.

After the Fire Budget's vote results were announced near the end of the meeting, a chorus of cheers went among many in the crowd while a jubilant chief shook hands with selectmen.

"I'm glad it's over," Meehan said after the meeting.

The chief's salary, the biggest point of contention since the budget was unveiled this spring, will now go from part time at $28,800 annually to full time at $47,476 with benefits.

Meehan, who currently works as a full-time firefighter in Gonic, said he will be soon retiring from that position to concentrate fully on his new full-time job in Lebanon.