LISBON’S SPENDING CONTINUES TO GROW!!!!

Tuesday night, the Town Council added an additional $955,714.00 dollars to the operating cost of the town.  This means that our leadership does not care about the impact on our taxes.  This is proven by the fact that since April 13, 2016, our Town Council did not hold any budget workshops in an effect to either reduce spending or increase our revenue.  It is a fact that the ONLY way to reduce taxes is a combination of reducing spending and increasing revenue.  Our current Town Council made no effort to do neither; instead they relied on the Town Manager to make all the cuts.  NOT HER JOB!!!!!

 If you remember last year the Town Council forced the School Department to cut $600,000 dollars in their budget.  This cost us, the taxpayers, a great deal of addition tax dollars because of the legal fees and the numerous referendums.  As a result, we now have three new Councilors and rightfully so.  This year we have three more Councilors coming up for reelection and if they are not interested in making an effort to reduce our taxes; they need to go.  This town needs to find three more honest individuals who can put the town’s interest first instead of their friends and neighbors agendas.  Loyalty is a wonderful thing but as a Councilor your loyalty has to be to the community first and upmost.

Each Councilor has a responsibility to try and find ways to improve this town.  I am sure that we have numerous citizens whom have excellent thoughts on improving the community.  We just need to find them.  A year or two ago, the former Town Council researched a solution to save the town approximately $190,000.00 tax dollars by closing the Communication Center.  A saving of $190,000.00 is not an insignificant amount of money but the project was stopped out of loyalty to the Police Department instead of what was in the best interest of the community. 

 Right now, if the town would reinstate this program, it would take approximately six month to switch over to whatever Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) the town decides to go with.  This means that the town has lost at least six months of savings due to the lack of the Town Council to act on this project.  It is critical that the 911 operators, whom are qualified as Emergency Medical Dispatcher, dispatch first responder upon receipt of the request for emergency services instead of being force to have to notify the Lisbon Communication Center prior to having first responders dispatched to the scene.  This is a waste of valuable time which is critical in any emergency situation.  Lisbon Communication Center has no one qualified as a 911 operators or Emergency Medical Dispatcher.  This reduces the quality of service being provided to victims by the Lisbon Communication Center.

 So why is it the Chairman Bickford, Councilors Metivier, Brunelle and Crafts not trying to find solutions to either reduce spending or increase revenue?  If they are not part of the solution then they need to go because they are part of the problem.

 Larry Fillmore