Fire chiefs: Selectman tried to broker deal

Selectman Royce Heath ... has had no comment

LEBANON - Fire and Rescue chiefs from Sanford and Milton on Friday told The Lebanon Voice that Lebanon Selectman Royce Heath had been in contact with their departments several times during the summer and fall trying to broker a deal that would allow for Lebanon rescue coverage by four separate area departments.

The idea was to break up the town into four quadrants, said Sanford Fire Chief Steve Benotti.

Benotti said during conversations with Heath he said he was there on behalf of "himself and the town."

Benotti said the last time Heath came was in October, in advance of the November ambulance vote, asking once again if Sanford would agree to the plan.

Milton Chief Nick Marique

"I told him we weren't really interested in doing that," Benotti said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Heath was doing the same thing in Milton, said Milton Fire and Rescue Chief Nick Marique.

"When he made the request of us looking into dividing the town (Lebanon), the three towns (and Frisbie Hospital) decided to get our thoughts together on some type of agreement," Marique said on Friday.

Marique said Sanford drafted the letter, but all four rescue departments had discussed and agreed to its mandate, a $2,000 sole responder surcharge, to be levied per call if either of the four departments responded to a Lebanon rescue call in which Lebanon was unable to field a response.

Lebanon Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson has said all along that Heath was acting on his own, not as a representative of the Board of Selectmen.

Sanford Chief Steve Benotti

Heath refused comment at Tuesday's selectmen's meeting.

North Berwick Rescue and Frisbie Hospital EMS are the other two ambulance services connected to the new Lebanon sole responder fee, which began on Monday.

North Berwick confirmed its adoption of the fee this week to The Lebanon Voice, while Frisbie EMS have not returned phone calls but are said to also be onboard.

Meanwhile, Thompson said the town is looking at a wide range of issues, including how such a sudden change of how mutual aid is defined and implemented could be arbitrarily put in place.

Both Benotti and Marique said that while Heath's initiative may have spurred the surrounding towns to develop a sole responder fee, it was only a matter of time before shrinking municipal budgets and growing calls for service would have resulted in such a shift.

"This is all part of a larger trend in a shrinking base of volunteers," Benotti said. "The places that used to enjoy volunteers now have to deal with personnel costs.

"It also has to do with the influx of calls for service and us being first responsible to our calls for service (in Sanford) and us being more responsible to our taxpayers."