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Fire, EMS chief's salary in the crosshairs at meeting on revised budgets

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From left, Lebanon Selectmen Chair Christine Torno, selectmen secretary Sue Collins, budget board member Bettie Harris-Howard and budget board alternate Corinna Cole. (Lebanon Voice photo)

LEBANON - Budget committee members got their first look at revised budgets for town Fire and Rescue services, the transfer station and codes enforcement on Thursday night, but no votes were taken as it was decided to wait until the referendum items are printed so the panel can see the exact language on which they will base their recommendation.

However, if the level of discussion among board members is any indication, it will be the fire and rescue budget that will draw's the lion's share of scrutiny at next month's Open Town Meeting, especially Fire and EMS Chief Dan Meehan's revised and increased $47,476 annual salary.

Neither Meehan, nor transfer station manager Ronal Patch or CEO Mike Beaulieu attended the meeting, which lasted about an hour and half.

Meehan would be Lebanon's first full-time chief. Last fiscal year Meehan drew $2,400 a month for running fire and rescue, about $28,800 for the year as a part-time employee.

If he goes full time, he'll also get full town benefits, which are estimated to add at least another $15,000 to his employee cost package.

The biggest concerns noted by several budget committee members was whether Meehan would be spending his 40 hours a week doing menial tasks like maintenance at the stationhouse and daytime or nighttime shifts, or actually administrating and leading the department.

"The other day I saw him mowing the lawn up there," budget panel member Becky Batchelder said referring to one of the stationhouses.

"Will he be a responder or an administrator?" budget panel Laura Bragg quizzed selectmen.

Meehan said at a meeting on May 19 that he would be covering shifts on an as-needed basis as part of his job.

Former Lebanon Fire Chief Skip Wood said the stationhouse is covered 14 hours a day by two personnel, and they should be trained to do tasks he believes Meehan is doing, allowing him to be a leader and administrator with fewer hours.

Budget committee members also asked selectmen what would happen if the fire budget was rejected on June 25 during a Special Open Town Meeting at Lebanon Elementary School.

Selectmen said they were unsure, but were confident that the residents of Lebanon would be able to hash out a budget of some sort.

Lebanon residents overwhelmingly rejected the original $450,000 Fire and EMS budget on May 10 with roughly six out of 10 residents opposed.

The new revised budget is $418,000, down about $31,000, most of it from dipping into the day stipend budget ($10,000) and the night on-call budget ($15,000). Another $2,000 was taken from staff development and training, $1,000 from office equipment and $500 from breathing apparatus equipment maintenance.

While most of the meeting time dwelt on the fire and rescue budget, the revised budgets for the transfer station and code enforcement were also presented.

On the CEO side, some $6,000 was slashed including about $5,000 in salary ($20.50 an hour) by reducing weekly hours from 40 to 35 and reduction of the travel budget by about $500 for a total revised budget of almost 45,000. The budget rejected by voters earlier this month was almost $51,000.

By comparison, last year's CEO budget was $36,685. The code enforcement officer's 35 hours per week would qualify him for all town employee benefits, which he didn't get last year when he worked about 29 hours a week, selectmen said.

The public will feel the hurt a little more on the transfer station budget, with the proposal on the table to discontinue Monday hours, leaving the transfer station open just three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.

There could also be some reductions in staff hours, Selectmen Chair Christine Torno noted.

The savings resulted in a reduction on the salary line item from $75,000 to $57,000.

Right now the transfer station has two personnel on during weekdays and four on Saturday, selectmen said.

The reduction in days open reduced the transfer station's overall budget to $351,000 from 370,000.

While wages went down at transfer and CEO as well as day and night workers at Fire and Rescue, the one wage that went up was Meehan's.

In the fire and rescue budget, the chief's wages were the one line item that went up, from $46,800 to $47,476, ostensibly because of President Obama's directive last week that anyone who makes less than that must be paid overtime after 40 hours.

The earlier federal threshold had been $23,660, which had been in effect more than a decade.

"How come I didn't get paid that?" said Wood, Lebanon's former fire chief, who often worked well over 40 hours while salaried at $14,400 a year.

"This is the law," Torno answered.

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