Page 6. MAINE COASTAL NEWS November 2017 70s Memories: Town Offi ce - Selectmen By Lee Wilbur
TOWN OFFICE-SELECTMEN Cont’d Next
day...town meeting. Call to or-
der. Chairman of the Board reads off voting results from previous day. Newly elected were sworn in. I turned and sat down in the empty chair at the head table, front of the Pemetic Gymnasium. Was I just a bit ner- vous? Yes, quite. If I’d had to give a Pledge of Allegiance, probably wouldn’t have re- membered the fi rst words. In fact, that fi rst meeting trails somewhere in memory. I’d have to go back to the minutes. But there were enough happenings in the next six years to fi ll a book and keep all of us on the Board(s) well occupied. A rebuilt town government had to be enacted and little did any of us really comprehend what it would mean to become the enacters.
First regular meeting agenda, State
had proclaimed each and every organized township (absolute overkill) would hence- forth adopt a Town Manager form of gov- ernment. No longer would “Good Old Boys Rule”. We’d have to hire someone who’d actually been to school to now tell us how a town had to be run. It wasn’t going to be in- expensive. To make matters more compli- cated, TM’s were a non- prevalent species. In a way, however, we were fortunate.
Living in town was a retired Town Manag- er, Robert Mclaughlin who we hired, and who headed us in the right direction(s). What none of us, as we soon realized in those early seventies, was what kind of shape the town was really in or would be if certain changes weren’t soon instituted. “Bob” as we knew him was a great help. First sit down
meeting...as I recall we
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started with monthly meetings, soon be- came bi weekly, then weekly, followed by phone calls “you’d better stop in when you get out of school.” Or. “Meeting tonight... let’s try for seven”... Eugene Robbins Fire Chief of many years tendered his resigna- tion. Said he was getting too old for the position. Asked we appoint Wilbert Terry which we did...excellent choice. Wilbert immediately began sketching what needed to be done, laying the basis for the modern department which was to follow. I’m not going to bore you, my readers
of this column of what had to be done and was done with all the town departments, except to say all of them
eventually...like soon... had to be re-built, an event not un- common over much of the State. Added as well, were the mandates from Washington. Sewer Discharge...a sewer
plant...no more Discharge Pipe into the harbor. Stinson Canning could no longer dump Herring waste. We went through (3) three town managers in the six years. Bought the water company. Built the sewer plant. Increased the Board from three to fi ve. Built up a new Fire Department. Set up a 24 hour dispatch. Reorganized the Highway Dept. And, throughout much of my fi rst term and into second we had to deal with an out of con- trol Police Chief and his Dept. which soon blossomed to a grow-up quick nightmare. Police Chief at the time, for some rea-
son known only to himself, was readying this small town of some 1,963 law abiding citizens for a major crime wave. Only prob- lems I’d ever noticed were the occasional dustup between some of the “Dragger” crews and the “Coasties” at our one local bar. Chief wanted to build a jail at the then small Police offi ce, he started buying riot gear, wanted to arm the reserves, then asked for another cruiser, etc, etc. We said “No. Wasn’t necessary.” But the Chief knew bet- ter. He knew we’d better be prepared and if we weren’t, “hellfi re would rain down upon this beautiful town.” And he’d better orga- nize the townspeople, have them recognize what sleeping fools the selectmen were and do something about it. He was clever, I must admit. First in-
sinuating himself into our local ambulance service to the point the service which had been in existence for years couldn’t func- tion without him. Dear little older ladies... bleeding hearts... who ran the service could quickly become a powerhouse when rattled and steered in the wrong direction as we were soon to learn. Not long before the Board realized
what was going on and we did the only thing we could. Fired the entire Police Dept. All two of them. An outsider would have thought we’d
de-famed the Christ Child. People were demonstrating on Main St. Halls were rented for “discussions”, guarded by the Sheriff ’s Dept. For the week following the dismissals we as selectmen with our oaths in mind took to patrolling with the police cruiser at night until we could put togeth- er a new Dept. An eye-opener and proof of our position. One minor event. Couple of the town High School boys stuck some empty trash cans under the sole traffi c as we’d make a round or two. Pranks soon ending as they got tired by the third night. But, overall it was a nasty situation. Had one person I’d known and respected from childhood spit at me leaving a meeting. Got so bad we held a couple meetings by sneak- ing into the Moorings Hotel and going to the attic. During the drawn out aff air we were more concerned about our family than anything. Wasn’t long before the lawsuits arrived
by Sheriff ’s deputies. Mine was served as I was teaching a class at Lamoine School. “Jointly and severally”, $275,000 each as well as the Town of Southwest Harbor. Now that could keep someone awake
at night! I was trying to build a house, raise a family, keep a decent job and then to have a large number of “your town” wish you’d dis-appear. Took better part of two years before things settled down. We easily won the lawsuits. Gave the Chief some sever- ance pay. Built a new and professional Po- lice Dept. and our fellow citizens began to understand what had taken place. Perhaps a few still had
questions...especially one dear elderly lady who attended every Se- lectmen’s meeting. Sat in the front row, and always had some inane question or remark. I must say, it was a great experience
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those six years. I learned more about peo- ple and personalities than I ever wished for. I was elected to and served as Chairman of the Board for two years (even have a com- merative wooden hammer to p rove it). By the end of six years I thought I’d paid my dues and when the same dear elderly lady questioned why we didn’t put the new tires for the police cruiser up for bid instead of buying them from the only service station in town, I decided not to run again.
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