Selectmen say they're good with moonlighting Meehan
Harrison Thorp 10 a.m.
LEBANON - Despite his promise to quit his full-time Rochester firefighter position if his budget were approved in June, Lebanon Fire and Rescue Chief Dan Meehan continues to work both jobs, and Lebanon selectmen said on Monday they're good with that. In September during a regularly scheduled selectmen's meeting The Lebanon Voice asked selectmen why Meehan hadn't quit his full-time Rochester firefighter position as he had promised to do at a May meeting. On Monday, Torno stated that Meehan had asked selectmen to go into executive session, and that his explanation as to why he had not retired yet was amenable to the board. "We made a decision that we were acceptive of his reasoning not to retire at this time," Torno said on Monday, adding that there was no timeframe as to when Meehan's status as a full-time Rochester firefighter might change. "He (Meehan) did not give us that yet," Torno said. "If he wants to talk about that (in the future) we'll have an executive session to decide where that's going." Meehan's reluctance to quit his Rochester job is at odds with his sentiment expressed in May when he pressed selectmen to accept his full-time $49,000 annual salary so he could be there for Lebanon 24/7, covering shifts if per diem personnel were unavailable and on hand to command firefighters and rescue personnel hands-on in emergency situations. In October Selectman Royce Heath's stance on the moonlighting Meehan appeared similarly blasé when asked when Meehan would limit his duties to Lebanon as he had pledged. "I don't know and it doesn't matter," Heath said at the time. Meehan, meanwhile, continues to collect two full-time salaries, from Rochester, where he works as a regular full-time firefighter; and from Lebanon where he is the full-time Fire and EMS chief. The ongoing saga of when Meehan will stop his double dipping is not only raising eyebrows in Lebanon, but among public service employees around the northern Seacoast. "How long are they gonna let him get away with that?" mused one Strafford County court officer recently.
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