CANTON — Selectmen disagreed Thursday on whether to enact a policy that would charge groups a fee for using the community room at the fire station.
“The building belongs to the taxpayers, and they should not be charged,” Selectman Lisa Cummings said.
Selectman Shane Gallant, who is also the fire chief, said some groups were not cleaning up, and the firefighters had to clean the room and bathrooms. Windows have been left open in very cold temperatures and the thermostats have been turned up and left on, wasting heat, he said.
Selectman Robert Walker and Brian Keene agreed with Gallant that the situation ought to be addressed and a policy put in place.
Cummings said they should put a line item in the budget addressing room-cleaning and heat use.
Gallant said he didn’t want his fire station budget paying for cleaning a room that was left untidy and filled with trash left behind for firefighters to dispose of. He said the fire station was never intended for public meetings.
Keene and Cummings said they would check the room the day after use and if it wasn’t left as requested in the room-booking contract, the party wouldn’t be allowed to use the room again.
No consensus was reached at the meeting.
The next meeting will be Monday, Nov. 25, instead of Thanksgiving Day.
In other business:
* Colby Davis said he had taken up the flags in the cemetery for veterans because the flags were not to touch snow or the ground.
* Mac Ray asked selectmen to give him permission to file and register a map showing the land the town got from eminent domain at the dam site, which is over the Brownsfield area. The board gave Ray permission to file.
* Kay Hawkins was reappointed plumbing inspector.
* Gallant said the Canton Crier will continue to come from the office and if anyone wants items in the newsletter, they need to come to office to submit them. There will not be a committee.
A final inspection of the Bog Brook project is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, at the Town Office with the Department of Transportation, the town and the contractor to decide who will replace the plantings that were destroyed while the project was under construction.
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