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Ambulance service discussion continues

By Jessie Salisbury - For The Cabinet | Feb 10, 2020

WILTON – Temple officials are unhappy with the apportionment of funds for supporting the ambulance service, but part of the problem appears to be a lack of communication among their departments.

On Feb. 3, members of Temple’s Budget Advisory Committee met with the Select Board, “because some inequities exist.”

When Greenfield joined the service, which also serves Lyndeborough, the apportionment was based on population. That was supposed to change to include on-call volume, and that apparently hadn’t yet happened, they said, and leaves Temple with a too-high percentage.

“We feel we are subsidizing the other towns,” Selectman Gail Conwell said. “We want to stay in the service” but we need to find an equitable solution. That solution was supposed to be arrived at for this year’s budget preparation but hasn’t been.

Information from recent joint meetings has apparently not been circulated in Temple. All three towns were scheduled to hold public hearings on proposed budgets this week.

Wilton was not honoring the contract signed last year, she said. “We need to go back to call volume numbers.”

Selectman Matt Fish said, “We need to maintain our partnership, and we need to be fair and just.”

More joint sessions are planned, and the discussions will continue among town officials.

In other business on Monday, the board met with Census Bureau Member Brendon Drew and town census coordinator Jackie Kahle to discuss the upcoming census, which will begin on March 12. The town library has been named the census center and will have computers available for people to fill out forms on line.

Library Trustees returned $3,218.62 to the town, the unspent portion of the town appropriation. Selectmen also accepted a check for $650 from Health Trust for a wellness program.

Town Administrator Paul Branscombe is looking into a Brownsfield grant to finally settle the question of cyanide sealed in the cement abutments near the Main Street dam on Stoney Brook. The cyanide salts, used by the former Wilton Pressed Metals Company, are said to be in drums and sealed in the cement. The EPA has been monitoring the site for many years.

Board Chairman Kermit Williams said, “It will be good to get it out of there.”

The Economic Development Committee has proposed building a pavilion or band stand on the site, which is part of Riverwalk.

Branscombe said a proposal by an Eagle Scout candidate to renovate Memorial Park as his project has withdrawn the plan.

Fish noted that it is “a (Department of Transportation) program since it is beside Route 31. “They need to clean up that clutter of signs.”

The next meeting of the board will be at 6 p.m. tonight.

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