Paris takes merger off the table

PARIS — An attempt to include a referendum on a merger between Norway and Paris police departments on the November ballot was put to rest by selectmen in an unanimous vote during a special meeting on September 21.

Selectmen voted on a motion made by Selectman Ryan Lorrain to indefinitely suspend the agenda item that considered the merger. Because a referendum question needs to be approved for the ballot 45 days before an election, the vote was a de-facto defeat of the proposal.

In a special town meeting in August the merger proposal was defeated in a 41-41 vote.

Earlier this month a motion made by Board Chair Sam Elliot to place a referendum question on the November ballot was defeated in a 3-2 vote.

Mary Beth Caffey, organized a petition and delivered it, with 122 signatures, to the selectmen at the September 21 meeting.

She said the signatures were collected over a week and a half. The question posed to residents was not whether they supported the merger, she said, but if they wanted to see the question on November's ballot.

Caffey told the board that five people who signed the petition told her they voted against the merger at a town meeting in mid-August.

Reached by phone on Monday, Caffey said time constraints stifled the petition.

"The only reason we didn't get enough signatures is because we didn't have enough time," Caffey said. She reported that there were high levels of enthusiasm for the proposed referendum from most people.

During the September 21 meeting Elliot thanked Caffey for the hard work she and others put into circulating the petition.

Prior to the vote, two residents again expressed their concern with putting a referendum question on the ballot.

Peter Kilgore, who said he voted against the merger at the town meeting, told Elliot he thought the merger was being "forced down his throat."

Kilgore said that putting a referendum on the ballot would be a disservice to the 82 residents who voted at the August meeting.

Janet Jamison, a vocal opponent of the merger, said the board should focus on the important business it already had in front of them, like the search for a town manager.

She suggested the board could revisit the merger proposal and bring it to voters again in the June 2013 election.

Reached by phone on Monday, Lorrain said the board was not attempting to force the merger issue with the meeting –  the selectmen wanted to see the results of the petition before the 45 day deadline and Friday was its last chance.

Lorrain, who has been a supporter of the merger proposal, said the board decided not to vote for a referendum because it was already busy with the selection of a new town manager in addition to its other responsibilities and did not want to give the appearance of using the special meeting to force the question onto the ballot.