Selectmen map out Rescue deficit reduction plan

Ben Thompson

LEBANON - Selectmen on Saturday laid out their tentative plans for dealing with a Rescue Department deficit that has mushroomed to well over $200,000 even as more unpaid department debt continues to as, Selectman Ben Thompson puts it, “crawl out of the woodwork.”

“We’re still getting businesses that say they owe them money,” he said during a Community Forum at the Lebanon Elementary School.

That said, selectmen have come up with a plan to balance the Rescue budget some $225,000 in debt by:

• *** Enacting from 3- to 10-percent budget cuts across most town departments from the current fiscal year that would garner town coffers about $80,000. That reallocation of voter-approved funds will be on the June ballot.
• *** Take $34,000 from recently disbursed FEMA money that was to have gone to the town roads budget to help defray costs from last year’s winter storms.
• *** Take about half of the $131,000 in additional FEMA money now sitting in the general fund since 2011 to help with ice storm relief. That money was to be used at the town’s discretion and could’ve been used as property tax relief but never was. The other half would stay in general fund.

That leaves about $35,000 left to bridge the gap to the $225,000 figure.

On a secondary fiscal front, Thompson said he plans to attend Springvale District Court on April 7 to try to secure title of a 2003 Ford Expedition, which still has not been turned over to the town from Lebanon Rescue Squad, Inc.

Selectmen said on Saturday that the Lebanon Rescue Squad, Inc., commonly referred to as the Lebanon Rescue Corporation, has stopped cooperating with selectmen, and that resigned Assistant Chief Jason Cole is still the legal agent for the corporation.

Meanwhile, selectmen have been poring over Lebanon Rescue Squad, Inc., bank statements dating back to 2005 trying to identify funds, with an eye to recovery, but have not as yet contracted with any forensic auditing company, which would carry its own cost to the town. Thompson estimated time spent by selectmen in their own internal audit in the 100s of hours.

Looking back on the Rescue Department fiscal mess that was years in the making, Thompson, who wasn’t part of the board when it all went south, characterized it as “a massive conflict of interest that was left unchecked.”

Earlier in the community forum, Corinna Cole gave residents an update of her work on the Comprehensive Plan Committee.

The community forum, which was more sparsely attended than its inaugural one in February, was called a success by Thompson, who noted that it was still better attended than many Tuesday evening selectmen’s meetings.

He said there might be one more this spring before they take a hiatus for the summer.