Harrison Thorp
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 7:04 am

LEBANON - Town voters will get another chance to save Rescue 2 on Jan. 24, when a ballot question spurred by a citizens petition will ask residents if they want to allow selectmen to expend town money to pay its annual lease payment.

A final draft of the referendum was recently approved this week and is expected to be sent to the printers soon.

Jan. 24 is a Saturday, and the polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. like any voting day.

A public hearing where residents can air concerns and questions about the referendum is set for Jan. 6, a Tuesday, at 7 p.m. at the Lebanon Elementary School.

Save Our Ambulance, a grassroots movement seeking to save Rescue 2, formed after what it saw as ambiguous wording in the Nov. 4 referendum led many residents to misvote on the referendum.

The same confusing wording will be on the January referendum, but an explainer box noting the implications of a "Yes" or "No" vote will accompany the question.

As was the case in the Nov. 4 ballot, a "Yes" vote means the town gets rid of the ambulance as a voluntary repossession; a "No" vote means the town retains it.

Selectmen added three additional questions to the ballot, two on whether residents want to pay Rescue 2 off in one payment or two, and one on whether townspeople want to get rid of the Rescue Department's Enterprise Account.

Of course, if residents vote to get rid of Rescue 2, they would skip questions 2 and 3 and go directly to Question 4.