Longtime former chief slams replacement on salary, apparatus moves, qualifications

Former Lebanon Fire Chief Skip Wood with Ginger, the department's former fire dog back in early 2015. (Lebanon Voice file photo)

LEBANON - In nothing short of a scathing rebuke of his 15-month tenure, longtime and revered former Lebanon Fire Chief Skip Wood excoriated current Chief Dan Meehan recently on his lack of experience, his massive budgeted pay raise and his penchant for taking fire apparatus out of service prematurely and without documentation.

The comments by Wood, who served five decades with the department and 13 years as its chief, came during several interviews last week with The Lebanon Voice on why as a budget committee member he voted against next year's $451,000 Fire and EMS budget.

Wood detailed several issues he has with Meehan's job performance and qualifications, but the income jump by some $18,000 annually was particularly egregious, he said.

"The chief's pay should be based on his knowledge and experience of the job, and not full pay for on the job training, as he has no experience in being an officer never mind being a chief," Wood said. "When he joined the department in Sept of 2014 he did not have any officer or leadership training in his file, and I would consider that unusual for a full-time 20-year veteran of the fire service."

Lebanon Fire and EMS Chief Dan Meehan

Wood was one of seven budget board members to unanimously vote against approving the budget. Two members - budget board chair Jeri Basko and Corinna Cole - abstained.

Wood also criticized Meehan's recently taking Engine 1 and the forestry truck used to battle brush fires out of service.

He said the chief claimed Engine 1 would not pass inspection, the pump failed its annual pump test and repairs to make it operational cost more than the truck was worth.

However, Wood said in 2009 when he was serving as chief, "We had the same problem, the pump would not pump and was out of service until repaired and it was stated that it was at that time only worth $5000 and the estimate to repair was around $10,000."

He said the selectmen decided to repair the old truck, and the final cost to rebuild the pump was $8,777. He thinks that road can be taken again.

Likewise, Wood blasted Meehan over his taking the forestry truck out of service, saying it was much more effective at getting out in the woods to fight brush fires than any pickup truck and skidder proposed by Meehan.

"The old unit was a 78 Ford truck all-wheel drive standard shift which was able to go out into the woods with out too much worry about getting damaged or stuck and was set up for just that," he said.

He said a four-wheel drive pickup and skidder won't go as far and easily into the woods and won't be as nimble.

He said Meehan complained of oil leaks, but after using the truck for years, he said the oil leaks he knew of were minor for that age and did not present a problem.

While he admitted if you drove the truck fast down Route 202 it would "blow oil out the oil breather and it looked like a major problem" it wasn't and was "always inspectable."

"Now we are getting in woods fire season and have nothing to respond with," he said.

He thinks Meehan is taking Engine 1 and the forestry truck out of service trying to "manipulate" the town into thinking they're unprotected, but he said with no temporary substitute for Engine 1 in place, the town will be without its fourth apparatus for more than a year even if the town approves a new firetruck. Plus he said the town's never gotten all four trucks out of the building for a fire since Meehan's been chief anyway.

Meehan, meanwhile, has refused all comment regarding the budget except to say he was "surprised" the budget board overwhelmingly rejected it given it was the same as last year's budget, which included some $200,000 to fund two-man per diem and on-call shifts for both Rescue and Fire.

Wood said the $200,000 was eaten up by just one two-man crew staffing Rescue with some Fire cross-training, because Meehan vastly underestimated the personnel costs.

While the figure of $8 an hour was estimated for a per diem average, an analysis by The Lebanon Voice using current scheduling and next year's budget figures appears to show about twice that is being projected for next year.

That analysis shows about $16.40 being paid on average for per diem staff and about $6.60 an hour on average being paid to on-call overnight personnel.

Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson said on Sunday the figure of $200,000 to pay for per diem and on-call staffing of both departments in the current fiscal year budget (ends June 30) that was voted on last June was merely a budgetary instrument and he'll take full responsibility, but he stood by Meehan, backing him 100 percent.

But what clearly rankles Wood the most is Meehan's meteoric $18,000 hike in salary, from $28,800 to $46,800 annually, not to mention another $15,000-$20,000 in benefits. Wood spent years and years often working over 40 hours a week drawing no benefits.

Moreover, Wood is unabashed in his disgust that selectmen chose Meehan over his choice for the new chief, Eric Neubert, his longtime former deputy chief who has been a full-time officer with the Sanford Fire Department for several years.

Wood claims an independent board of fire chiefs put Neubert higher on the list than Meehan, yet selectmen chose him.

"Eric had plenty of officer training and was an officer in Sanford," he said. "He had the most qualifications and training."

Three of the chiefs or former chiefs on the independent board that was supposed to have aided selectmen in their choice for chief included former Lebanon Fire Chief Glen Gerrish, Sanford Fire Chief Steve Benotti and Berwick Chief Dennis Plante.

Plante today said he couldn't recall the list, while Benotti had not returned several calls and Gerrish was not immediately available.

Soon after Meehan's arrival, both Neubert and Wood were told their services were no longer needed, both have said.

Meanwhile, Thompson defended selectmen's choice, saying while Meehan might not have had officer training, he was a leader and had promised selectmen he would take care of the $2,000 sole responder fee that had been hanging over the town. That fee, which was temporarily threatened by North Berwick, Milton and Sanford, has since been withdrawn.

That holds little sway with Wood.

"They (selectmen) just wanted a yes man," he said.