With Fire, Rescue combined, Saturday vote crucial

LEBANON - With Lebanon's Rescue and Fire departments now combined, Saturday's Special Referendum Election vote takes on even more urgency, according to Lebanon Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson, who is hoping townspeople will vote to both keep Rescue 2 and scuttle the department's enterprise account, the last puzzle piece needed to make Rescue like all other town departments that operate within a budget.

Meanwhile, keeping Rescue 2 will show the town's commitment to making its Rescue Department a viable first responding entity, potentially saving the town tens of thousands of dollars in threatened first responder fees from surrounding towns and ambulance services.

Thompson said the town has received about a half-dozen $2,000 first responder fees since the fee was implemented by four area departments on Dec. 1.

None have been paid, however, as selectmen will likely try to negotiate a more reasonable fee as well as possible protocols under which the fee might be waived or reduced.

In the meantime, Saturday's vote will have four separate questions, with ample instructions to help residents fill out their ballot.

The first question will ask residents if they want to keep Rescue 2, the town's newest and best ambulance.

The ambiguous and cumbersome wording that proved confusing to voters on Nov. 4 will remain, but an explainer box below the question explains that a "Yes" vote means the town shall give up the ambulance, while a "No" vote means the town will keep it.

The second and third question asks voters if they want to pay off the ambulance, at $79,715, or just make the second to last lease payment of $40,500, and wait till next year to pay the last payment.

The final question asks voters if they want to rescind, or get rid of, the infamous enterprise account, which many have come to see as the root of all Rescue evil, since former town officials never kept to the mantra that no town funds would be used to fund Rescue. Instead funds poured out of the town account to pay Rescue costs subtracted from an enterprise account that was forever in a negative balance.

The polls at Lebanon Elementary School will be open on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.