Article 1 Passed With 22 Yes and 1 No

[mkr]

Gabe Handy certainly has done way beyond and I thank him for helping and donating so much!

[Mummy]

Life and death is not a time to cheap out!

Wasn't that nice of Mr Handy?

[FletcherGram]

Just a FYI to 3plusk, the Fire Dept has not been "a town volunteer dept" for many years.

[mirjo]

I am at a loss for words on some of these comments.

Hear that, MK.

[lena6]

That was very petty by the select board to do that.  I agree now that it was not Gabe but our own people (select board) that screwed us.  I wished somebody could tell me why people hold a grudge as long as they do.

[nhibbard]

Maybe Gabe was not at the top of the list to get an allocation. Giving the intended user the allocation directly is different than giving it to a landlord or whatever Gabe would have been.

[resqmas701]

In the end I am not sure that anyone "screwed" anyone. The initial idea of the lease to own was a good one. I certainly understand the position that the select board was in. They have a lot of builders who want water allocations but they have no allocations to give. They were very kind to give rescue an allocation out of the municipal reserve. If they had given Mr Handy an allocation from reserve I am sure many builders would have questioned it regardless what it was being used for. In the end rescue probably made out better financially by purchasing. We were guaranteed a cost of 288,000.00 for the building. The actual costs have run much higher with Mr Handy absorbing that difference. If we had gone with the lease purchase our monthly payments would have been significantly higher. In the end I think we had the best of both worlds, a guaranteed cost that we could afford. It also gives us a good comfortable place to put up all of the folks who are there to help all of you folks when you need it. It is my true belief that the new facility will make it easier to attract new volunteers and keep the ones that we have.