LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted Tuesday to buy a portable toilet for $200 for the Recreation Field and purchase a set of spiral stairs for the clock tower on the Bank Building on Main Street.
The stairs are contingent on Town Manager Carrie Castonguay finding money for them.
Public Works Department Supervisor Bill Nichols found a set online for $1,508 without shipping. With other necessary material, it would cost about $2,000, he said.
Jim Bryant, who is in his 80s, maintains the clock twice a year. It’s accessible by a ladder and the climb is steep, Nichols said. The building owner is OK with installing stairs, he said.
Regarding the portable toilet, Nickerson’s Septic Tank Services of Turner retrieved its rented toilet at the field because of significant vandalism earlier this year, Castonguay said.
There are children playing games there on weekends and a portable toilet would be helpful to them and community members, she said.
There is less vandalism at the field because of surveillance cameras installed in the area. People are getting caught, she said.
Nickerson’s initially refused to provide a toilet, but later offered to sell one the town had used for $200, Castonguay said. The cost to service the Recreation Field and gazebo toilets will be $135 a month, she said.
In another matter, the Town Office will be open Wednesday, but closed Thursday for mandatory election training. There are a lot of new rules this year, Town Clerk Doris Austin said.
The office will be closed next Tuesday for staff to attend training on property liens.
Barbara Sergio, president of Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, gave a presentation on the hospital’s Critical Access Hospital designation. As part of the transition, the hospital has applied for a new hospital license and decrease its official bed count from 65 to 25, per Critical Access Hospital guidelines. There haven’t been 65 beds at the hospital for several years, Sergio said.
The big difference to FMH is it will receive more federal reimbursement for services it provides. “The daily patient census currently hovers around 25, so the decrease in bed count will have little to no effect on day-to-day hospital operations. It will not limit access nor be a downgrade for the facility,” Sergio previously said.
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