And the winner is ... Rescue 2, by a landslide

LEBANON - The voting may have occurred under cloudy, snow-filled skies, but inside the Lebanon Elementary School on Saturday residents showed crystal clear intentions: They wanted to keep Rescue 2, and they wanted to transform Lebanon Rescue from what it had become the past five years, scuttling the department's enterprise account once and for all and forever.

Reversing the outcome of the Nov. 4 vote that got rid of the ambulance, the vote to keep Rescue 2 this time was overwhelming approved 459-79, with about 85 percent, backing keeping the town's best ambulance..

The vote to rescind the Rescue Department's much maligned enterprise account, seen as digging the town a $200,000 debt during its five-year tenure, was also overwhelmingly approved, 477-64, with only about 12 percent of townspeople wanting to keep it.

The two questions that dealt with payment options on Rescue 2, meanwhile, were pretty close, with the payoff option narrowly eking out a win.

The vote to pay Rescue 2 off in two payments ($40,500 this year) was approved 369-153, while the vote to pay it off completely ($79,700) was approved 374-161.

Kevin Romano, deputy chief of operations for Lebanon Rescue, emailed The Lebanon Voice late Saturday saying, "That's great news."

Harrison Thorp, the publisher of The Lebanon Voice, who organized the Save our Ambulance movement and citizen's petition drive that enabled the revote, said he was very happy with the result of the vote and proud of all the people who helped in the effort, especially town resident Bob Normandeau along with many, many others.

"We had a rough start, and we had our dark times, but I think everyone that helped and the residents who voted the way they did can all give themselves a pat on the back and realize they made democracy work for the betterment of all in Lebanon," he said today.