It was a year ago 'TLV' broke Rescue Probe story

This week marked the one-year anniversary of the day the infamous Rescue Probe first came to light in The Lebanon Voice.

The story was posted at 10:30 a.m. on March 26 after former selectmen chair Bob Frizzell acknowledged the probe in answer to a query from The Lebanon Voice at a selectmen’s meeting the night before.

Stu Morrison, a former Rescue volunteer who was one of five Rescue members who filed grievances with selectmen, said this week he believed that if it weren’t for The Lebanon Voice, former assistant rescue chief Jason Cole and his wife, Samantha Cole, the former chief, would still be at the Rescue helm.

“I think that if (The Lebanon Voice) hadn’t come aboard he wouldn’t have been overthrown,” Morrison said. “When you brought it out, it got people motivated.”   

Frizzell, who conducted the probe with former Town Attorney Alan Shepard, found the Rescue Department and the Coles guiltless of all charges.

The report, itself, became a bone of contention among residents as no documents pertaining to the probe ever came to light.

Frizzell, who was a longtime political pal of Jason Cole, led the probe with Shepard’s oversight.

Rumors that the state Attorney General was investigating improprieties turned out to be either overblown or false, but on Facebook pages and at Selectmen’s meetings the seemingly toothless investigation was a constant matter for debate and division among residents.

Frizzell wound up losing his re-election bid to Ben Thompson and the Coles resigned six months later amid fiscal audits of the Rescue Department’s books which showed the department to be awash in red ink and anything but self-funded as it had been portrayed by its former leaders.

Jason Cole also stepped down from his selectman’s seat.

Emails sent to then-selectmen were either not returned or returned with no comment.

Morrison, who plans to return to the Rescue Department next month after he gets recertified as an EMT, said, “You don’t hear the controversy anymore, I’ve talked to the Fire Dept. guys. Everyone’s working together.

“If we do everything right, don’t have any huge excessive parties, we’re going to be able to build up some capital for the town.”

To read the original “Rescue Probe Comes to Light” article go to http://thelebanonvoice.homestead.com/archive-march.html.