Selectmen are concerned with highway department

BUCKFIELD —  During their September 18 meeting, board members expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the town's highway department, particularly the use of an uninspected vehicle, the abrupt departure of a town employee and the insecurity of the town garage.

Town Manager Dana Lee confirmed that the inspection sticker on a one-ton truck owned by the town had expired in May. It was re-stickered in September, he reported.

At the meeting, Lee said town employees were aware the vehicle had no sticker and tried to use the truck in very limited ways, although, he admitted, that was no excuse for using it at all.

In the time the vehicle lacked an inspection sticker, it was driven 5,696 miles, according to Board Chair Robin Buswell.

Buswell said he was astonished the vehicle had been used that frequently, considering there are only 46 miles of roads in Buckfield.

Wednesday morning Lee said Buswell's figure actually represented the mileage of the vehicle from sticker to sticker, not since its registration ran out in May.

Lee said the vehicle had been driven around 900 miles over the course of the summer. He iterated that the vehicle should never have been driven without a sticker.

Selectman Rodney Allen said town employees had put themselves and residents in danger by taking the truck, known to be unsafe, out on the road.

"They consciously took their lives and the lives of the citizens of Buckfield into their own hands," Allen said. "To me it's unacceptable, just totally unacceptable. People making decisions like that ... do not need to be on our payroll."

Selectwoman Martha Catevenis  asked Lee how an uninspected vehicle could have been used for that long. She stated that highway department employees were responsible for reviewing their equipment for safety.

Lee said funding to repair the truck was intended for the 2012 budget but never included –  the highway department was under the impression it shouldn't put extra work into the vehicle until the funding came through, he reported.

Lee also reported that some town vehicles were older and in poor shape.

"We gotta stay on top of this," responded Buswell. "Excuses are not accepted anymore."

Lee also told the board he was concerned with the lack of security at the town garage.

According to Lee the garage doors are regularly left open or unlocked when town employees aren't there. Lee also said that a drill set had gone missing from the garage.

Lee told the board he would like to see the facility "locked down" when no one was around. He was looking into a key or card system for the town's fuel pumps so  highway and rescue employees would not need to enter the building to log their fuel. 

Additionally, Lee's town manager report states that Dan McAlister, a recently hired highway department employee abruptly quit on September 9.

McAlister, who attended the September 18 meeting, began to voice complaints regarding the conduct of the highway department foreman before being informed by selectmen that personnel issues could not be discussed during a public meeting.

The selectmen convened an executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss a personnel issue. No action was taken, Lee reported Wednesday.