LUBEC — Residents will not be billed for emergency services from the Fire Department in the next fiscal year.
Town officials tabled a proposed ordinance to charge residents, or their insurance, for emergency services and, instead, advanced a measure to fund the Paula Tinker Memorial Lubec Junior Firefighters program pitched to them in April.
The program, which would be open to youth ages 12 to 16 with parents’ permission, was approved before a packed Board of Selectmen’s meeting Wednesday.
With 27 people watching the meeting’s livestream and others attending in person, the Board of Selectmen also reviewed a Fire Department Cost Recovery ordinance they said was based on a Calais ordinance. First proposed at a budget workshop meeting in April, it received initial support from selectmen to be added to the warrant for the annual town meeting in August.
The language specifies restitution, both flat fees and hourly rates, that would allow the Fire Department to recoup costs for fire and emergency services. Per the ordinance, “fire suppression, fire rescue and fire prevention services” are eligible for reimbursement, and so are traffic incident responses, like putting out a car fire or extricating a person from a damaged vehicle.”
The proposed ordinance reads that a “responsible party,” or their third-party insurance carriers, can be billed for reimbursement of services and all costs recovered would be put into a reserve fund to offset firefighters’ stipends. One resident, and former town manager, Dana Bradley, called the Board of Selectmen to task for considering a measure to bill individuals in their time of need.
“I have a hypothetical. Let’s say somebody has a chimney fire and the department is called out. The breakout fee is 100 bucks, minimum engine $300 per hour, the squad $250 per hour, the chief is going to get $45 an hour, assistant chief gets $35 an hour, ranking officer $30 an hour, firefighter gets $25 per hour,” Bradley read from the document.
“Now we’re talking about how this ordinance says that the responsible party (will be billed). Maybe the poor devil doesn’t have insurance? And we’re going to send him a bill for that? I cannot believe this. This has no business being passed,” he said.
After public discussion on the ordinance, the Board of Selectmen decided the language needs more consideration, and moved to table the ordinance. It will not appear on the warrant for the annual town meeting.
Bradley then proposed funding $25,000 for Lubec’s junior fire department program for equipment and training. After some discussion, with members of the public calling for support of the vocational program for young people, the motion was advanced and will be on the town meeting warrant for voters to consider.
In other business, selectmen approved an easement request by Versant which the company said establishes a bracer for an utility pole adjacent to the town’s Safe Harbor Project, according to the selectmen. At a meeting earlier this month, selectmen were concerned the brace pole might interfere with the project which includes construction of a 625-foot breakwater designed to enhance public safety in Lubec’s waters.
Carol Dennison, chair of the Board of Selectmen, said she followed up with Versant and confirmed that the pole will be “20 feet in the property, on the property line between the red house and the garage,” which she described as not “in anybody’s way.”
Officials also approved closing the sale of a home on North Lubec Road. The sale comes after selectmen reduced the listing price of the home at a previous meeting to sell it “as is,” because there is a tenant living in the building. The town had taken possession of the home, which had been foreclosed for unpaid taxes, after being unable to locate the Connecticut man who owned it.
Realtor Shayna Smart, with Bold Coast Properties, told selectmen at the meeting that the tenant was in the process of securing a new rental home that she said “seemed promising.”
