Selectmen don't grant grievance
By Caitlyn Kelleher

Selectmen Gerald Houle and Geoff Woollacott voted against granting former library director Marja LePoer her grievance at their Sept. 18 meeting.

The selectmen stated that they could not grant a grievance because they did not have the power of the Library Board of Trustees, which is an elected board.

Selectman Peter McMurray was not at the meeting.

The selectmen listened to the grievance hearing at their Sept. 6 meeting, where the LePoers' expressed their anger about the termination process and LePoer's treatment at the library and trustees explained that LePoer's poor work.

LePoer filed a grievance with the selectmen after being fired by the Library Board of Trustees.

The trustees, by state law, are the only board with the power to hire of fire a library director.

A recall effort is still pending against four of the library trustees.

In other business:

 Highway Superintendent Bill Davis informed the selectmen he was going to try to apply for a Small Town Roads Assistance Program grant in hopes of bring more road repair money into the town.

The grants if received would pay for 70 percent of selected projects and the town would have to contribute 30 percent.

 Selectmen also voted to appoint Eric Salo and Sean Zrate as reserve police officers.

 Selectmen also voted to appoint Anner Reggion and Mark Lapham to the Library Board of Trustees to fill two vacancies.

 Woolacott volunteered to serve as the selectmen's representative on the Library Director Search Committee. He was not formally appointed because he can not vote on his own appointment, so the board had to wait until McMurray was at the meeting.

 Kevin Meehan approached the board to find out why they rescinded their vote to have the highway department do some drainage work on his Mason Road property.

Woolacott and Houle apologized for all of the confusion and the delays in the situation but said they were bound by appearance of special favors concerning the use of town funds or materials on private property.

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Caitlyn Kelleher can be reached at (978) 827-3386, ext. 15, or e-mail: caitlynkelleher@ aol.com