Cole grilled on time slips, Frizzell endorsement

Selectman and Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole, right, told a candidate on March 20 he was endorsing Robert Frizzell, above, for selectman.

LEBANON - Selectman and Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole faced a firestorm of criticism on Tuesday during a selectmen’s meeting, ranging from tardy response to a Right to Know request regarding the Lebanon Rescue Corporation to apparent waffling on his endorsement of fellow Selectmen Chairman Robert Frizzell to seeking multiple legal opinions regarding the propriety of the Rescue Department’s enterprise account status until finding one that suited him.

Testy exchanges during the public portion of the meeting included one with The Lebanon Voice over Cole’s flip-flopping regarding his admitted endorsement of Frizzell to retain his selectmen’s seat in June’s town elections.

The Lebanon Voice felt it vital to know if Cole had endorsed Frizzell prior to, during or after Frizzell’s Rescue Probe finding on March 29 in which he absolved Cole, the assistant Rescue Chief; and his wife, Lebanon Rescue Chief Samantha Cole, of any wrongdoing.

Jason Cole, in an email sent selectman candidate Bettie Harris-Howard on March 20, said he had enjoyed working with Frizzell since 2008 and would endorse his candidacy and was therefore unable to support her.

Cole on Tuesday, however, said he had rescinded his endorsement of Frizzell because some new people had entered the race for selectman.

He then quipped that who he voted for is a private matter for him to decide in the voting booth.

Several candidates as well as noncandidates, however, have privately fretted that Frizzell, with “The Rescue vote,” may be unbeatable.

Budget Committee member Becky Batchelder asked Cole about several Right to Know requests regarding the Rescue Department that she still had not received. Cole said he had sent them to her a week ago and would follow up and see that she got them.

Budget Committee member Chris Gilpatrick again denounced the Lebanon Rescue Corporation’s enterprise account as a sham and urged the town to abandon it. Cole said that the account was legal and had legal backing, adding he would produce the legal opinion and forward it to Gilpatrick and The Lebanon Voice.

You go to enough lawyers you’ll find one to back you, Gilpatrick retorted.

Gilpatrick also complained that the Budget Committee had been put off several times by Rescue Chief Samantha Cole who he said owed it to the town to come before the panel since the department does use town money and works for the town.

Frizzell explained that she had a different work schedule making it harder to attend.

Gilpatrick said the Rescue Chief was trying to arrange a Friday night meeting with Budget Committee members because she knew it would be lightly attended because it was the weekend.

Harris-Howard chided Cole for his withholding of time slips, which she said was unethical and inappropriate, to which Cole replied, “You were an accountant, right? Well, when I’m not taking my pay, the town’s making money on that interest. So I’m really doing the town a favor.”

Harris-Howard then asked Cole if he would be submitting more detail in his time slips regarding how he spent his time in the town’s employ as selectman. He said he would after being urged to do so by Frizzell.

Near the end of the public session, selectman candidate Robie Marsters asked Cole who was driving the Rescue Department Command Vehicle that had been parked at the corner of T.M. Wentworth and Gully Oven Road the day of the brush fire last week in West Lebanon. Marsters said he was driving down Gully Oven Road and the vehicle veered toward him and almost forced him into the ditch.

Cole said he would have to review his records to determine who the driver was.

In other news:

Selectmen and the public discussed a proposed Code Red emergency notification system, which uses reverse 911 technology to alert townspeople about emergencies and disasters.

Cole said it allows town officials to alert residents in the town or a particular part of town if there is an emergency. Cole said it could’ve been used last week to alert residents in West Lebanon about the brush fire, or calmed jittery nerves after the earthquake last fall.

Opinions were mixed, some questioning the need for what might be an overlap of county emergency notifications and others saying that the Code Red system often fails because nonemergency announcement are added in the mix diluting the sense of urgency the messaging is intended to evoke.

The Code Red proposal, which involves a three-year financial arrangement, will be on the June ballot.