T-N Fire Station Committee members under scrutiny

TILTON — The chair of the Tilton-Northfield Fire Station Committee, along with another committee member and the fire chief, are under attack for having violated the state’s open meeting law.

Paul Blaisdell, Lisa Martin, and Fire Chief Michael Sitar met last month without a quorum and without notifying other committee members to prepare questions for the two companies under consideration for the design and construction of a potential new fire station. They then submitted those questions and received replies from the firms.

Northfield Selectboard member Kevin Waldron is now calling for their dismissal from the committee.

Waldron, who is one of seven members of the Fire Station Committee, learned of the action when he received the companies’ responses to the questions, and he immediately objected to the transgression.

Martin’s reaction was, “Oh, shoot, Kevin; you’re absolutely correct.”

Blaisdell officially apologized at the committee’s Dec. 29 meeting, acknowledging that Waldron’s concerns were valid, but saying there was no intention of circumventing the law.

“There was simply an effort to get the answers that we needed in order to have this meeting,” he said.

“I can guarantee you that at least two of the three people involved knew better,” Waldron replied. “Paul Blaisdell has chaired many meetings. He knows the rules of quorum. Chief Sitar has been to many meetings. He knows the rules of quorum. What you guys did was wrong, 100% totally unacceptable.”

Pointing out that it will take a two-thirds affirmative vote to get a new station approved, Waldron said such an incident brings into question the integrity of the committee and could sabotage the years of work members have put in.

“You blew it,” he said.

Other members said “a big deal is being made of nothing” and wanted to move on.

Jon Cilley, chair of the Tilton-Northfield Fire Commission and its representative on the Fire Station Committee, said Waldron’s point was valid.

“I will say that I was miffed as well to not be included in the questions beforehand,” Cilley said. “But to their point also, they’re addressing the matter publicly. I don’t think that it totally derails the integrity of the committee.”

He pointed out that other public bodies have corrected procedural mistakes by subsequently addressing them in public, and he asked that the questions they submitted be read into the record.

Waldron took his concerns to the other Northfield selectboard members on Jan. 3 and then to the fire commissioners’ meeting on Jan. 4, pressing for the dismissal of the three committee members.

The Fire Station Committee is a subcommittee of the Fire Commission, and both Cilley and Commissioner Paul Auger — the third commissioner, Eric Pyra, is away on vacation — discussed the matter in nonpublic session. They decided to invite the three committee members to the next commission meeting on Feb. 7 to discuss what happened and “what the next step would be.”

Meanwhile, committee members have scored each of the firms based on their experience and answers to the questions posed, and will be seeking references for their next meeting, scheduled for Feb. 9. The individual scores will be tabulated and the firms will be asked to meet in person to answer any other questions.

Until recently, the committee had been looking at an expansion of the Park Street Station in Northfield, which would allow the fire district to close its Central Street station in Tilton, but Sitar raised another possibility: building a new fire station on Sanborn Road, Tilton, while making minor renovations to the Park Street facility.

They plan to bring a proposal before the voters in 2024.