Long road to recovery: Rescue vehicle finally secured

The Expedition - near the end of its journey - in Selectman Ben Thompson's driveway today. (Harrison Thorp photo)

Less than a day before selectmen were scheduled to take the Lebanon Rescue Squad, Inc. to court to secure possession of a 2003 Ford Exhibition, a former Rescue volunteer dropped the vehicle off at Selectman Ben Thompson’s house Sunday afternoon.

The title, meanwhile, was dropped off at Town Offices Friday afternoon by Lebanon Rescue Squad, Inc. President Teena Meserve.

The vehicle, complete with dead battery, was dropped off Sunday around 4 p.m., Selectman Ben Thompson said today.

He said someone must have given it a quick charge before dropping it off, because when he went out soon after to move it, the battery was already dead.

A former Rescue Department volunteer was seen inside Springvale District Courthouse early today with a manila envelope full of papers, perhaps to file some paperwork or attend the scheduled hearing, but the Expedition selectmen were seeking possession of was already in hand.

Lebanon Rescue Squad, Inc. had bought the vehicle for about $7,000 in mid-October and offered it to the town as a Rescue Vehicle on Oct. 20, Thompson said.

In mid-November it was learned the Rescue Department was in dire straits financially and on Dec. 5 the extent of the debt was figured in excess of some $200,000 at a meeting attended by auditors and the town attorney.

Selectmen opted to accept the vehicle on Dec. 12 with the intention to sell it to recover some of the debt Rescue had accrued. The move came two days after both former Rescue Chief Samantha Cole and Assistant Chief Jason Cole announced their resignations from the Rescue Department and Jason Cole announced he would step down from the Board of Selectmen.

Jason Cole later resigned from his position as president of the corporation, but remains its chief agent.

Efforts to get the corporation to give up the vehicle went nowhere prompting selectmen to pursue the case in court leading to today's scheduled hearing.

Meserve was said to be cooperating with selectmen earlier in the year, but recently the relationship has become strained, selectmen said at a community forum last month.