Scouts and Residents Clean Lebanon Roadways, Enjoy a Hot Dog BBQ and K-9 Demonstration.

The Lebanon Maine Boy Scout Troop 369, sponsored by the Lebanon American Legion, hosted this year's Lebanon Clean Up Day today beginning at 9 am.
Teams of Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Pioneer Girls, and Adults took to the streets and back roads of Lebanon picking up debris for most of the morning.
Lebanon Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts who participated were; Andrew Merrifield, Ryan MacKenzie, Connor MacKenzie, Tyler MacKenzie, Eric Sirois, Dana Grover, Dakotah Grover, Kaden Fuda, Anthony Fuda, Colby Watson, Greg Sirois, Zachary Burns, Hunter Brown, Eli Teatrealt, Caleb Poulin, Kayden Spence, Ryan Upton, Colby Amidon, and Larry Abbiati.
The boys were grouped with an adult and a follow vehicle, Our thanks to Norm Sirois, Ryan Burns, Jake Teatreault, Veronica Poulin, Matt Amidon, Barry Spence, Kieth Merrifield, Jenn MacKenzie, and Adam Watson for being out there with our town's Scouts and working alongside your young men!!
Lebanon Girl Scout Troop 1908 were also in attendance with a good number of young ladies, who worked equally as hard!!
Lebanon Girl Scouts who participated were; Samantha Merrifield, Cammie Rose, Ella Shennett, and Hannah Barr, under the leadership of Scout Leaders Andrea Rose and Jennifer Merrifield.
We were also pleased to have two Lebanon Pioneer Girls working with the Scouts today!! Great job done by Marie Sirois and Sophie Teatreault.
There were also a group of younger siblings on hand, and for little folk, they did an amazing job!! Our thanks to Hali Fuda, Kristen Fuda, and Lily Watson.
The younger residents did an AMAZING job cleaning up all around the Lebanon Elementary School and the Hanson School. They raked and added mulch and picked up trash from the school grounds.
As we drove the back roads of town, we saw there were many who had left bagged debris on the side of the roads. Teresa Brooks and her husband Ed had come along to help, as did Sandy Adams and her son Jim.
Our thanks to the many residents who also went out and cleaned along the roads, leaving the rubbish neatly bagged by the roadside for pick up!
After cleaning up some of the major roadways in town, the group headed back to the Lebanon Town Office for hot dogs and macaroni salad. Grill Chef Selectman Ben Thompson and his Sous Chef daughter Summer did a wonderful job of keeping the dogs coming!
Around noon, the Lebanon Road Crew workers came with three trucks and drove the roads, picking up the bagged trash and larger debris, tires and construction debris and taking it all to the Lebanon Transfer Station.
A call to Transfer Station Head Man, Ronal Patch, at about 3:30 found that the Crew had already brought 3 full truck loads of trash, tires, and debris to the Transfer Station.
After the hot dog BBQ, the scouts were in for a surprise as their Scoutmaster, Norm Sirois had arranged to have Maine Game Warden Michael Coyne and Portland Police K-9 Officer Christian Stickney and his dogs arrive for a demonstration. Stickney who also trains dogs from his business, North Edge K-9 located in Gorham, Maine.  Mr. Coyne, who has done several cameo appearances with his dogs on the television show North Woods Law, also arrived with his dog. Coyne's dog, Sheba, a 3 year old Belgian Malinois, remained in his vehicle, but Officer Stickney did presentations with both of his dogs, Blaze, a 2 year old Belgian Malinios, and Tigger, a Bavarian Mountain Hound pup.

North Edge K-9 Owner Christian Stickney and Blaze speak to Lebanon Scouts

Adults and children alike sat mesmerized as Officer Stickney put Blaze through his paces, all the while speaking about his training, what police dogs are used for, and how important they are in finding lost children and in the protection of their human counterparts.
"He's with me more than my wife, more than my kids," said Stickney of his partnership with Blaze. "I trust him with my life. I know he'll be with me. Even more than other Police Officers as he doesn't understand fear or failure."
Stickney's commands to his K-9 partner are issued in Dutch. But he assured the children that even if a criminal knew the Dutch language and was yelling commands at the dog, "he would only listen to me, I'm sure of that."
Tigger, the Bavarian Mountain Hound was brought out to sniff the woods and lawn and get some pets and adoration from all the residents. According to Stickney, there is only one other Police Tracking Hound in Maine and he is up in the northern areas. Tigger is one of two in the State, "And Tigger is the only Mountain Hound", he added with pride. Tigger comes to Stickney, his family, and his Department from Berlin Germany.

Tigger the Bavarian Mountain Hound Pup, will be one of only two Police Tracking Hounds in Maine

The Officer than showed the gathered children important parts of his uniform, and his vehicle. There is a button on his uniform and if he pushes it, the passenger side rear door of the vehicle opens, releasing Blaze. "He knows that if that door opens and I'm not there, I need him and he has to find me", said Stickney. He also demonstrated the "heat sensor" on the cruiser that sounds a siren, turns on the lights, and opens the windows should the engine fail and the temperatures become too hot inside the vehicle for the dogs.

Portland K-9 Officer Christian Stickney Shows the Scouts the Special Equipment in K-9 Cruisers

The North Edge K-9 owner, Officer Stickney, also brought North Edge K-9 T-Shirts to hand out to everyone!! That was a GREAT surprise!!
We'd like to extend a huge THANK YOU, once again to Scoutmaster Norm Sirois and all the Lebanon Boy and Girls Scouts, Scout Leaders, Residents, Road Crew, Lebanon Road Commissioner, Lebanon Transfer Station, Selectman Ben Thompson, Welches Hardware, Market Basket, North Edge K-9, Police Officer Christian Stickney, Blaze, Tigger and Maine Game Warden Michael Coyne for their hard work and community involvement today!!
SO much got done and the roads look GREAT!!

Chief Dan Meehan Posts Some Exciting News For Lebanon in His 6 Month In Review

6 months in review
Fire and Rescue Chief Daniel Meehan
June 12, 2015


Right after being sworn in as the new Lebanon Fire Chief in January 2015 I was asked if I wanted to also take over as the Rescue Chief. I agreed as one of my goals was to merge the two departments together in the future.
As I hit the ground running I learned that there were 8 OSHA violations on the Rescue side that were reported back in February of 2014 and little if anything was done to correct them. Because they had gone for so long OSHA would provide no extensions and I had 30 days to correct the violations or there would be a hefty fine costing thousands. The violations were completed with help of some dedicated members within the 30 days and instead of fines in the thousands, the fine was less than one hundred dollars. 
Since January the Rescue has responded to about 146 calls some having multiple patients or multiple calls back to back. Just in the month of May, there were 33 calls.
By February I started posting a monthly calendar within Rescue where members could sign up for shift coverage. This was important because for the first time, it took the guess work and confusion out of exactly who would take the call. No more, the tone going off an every responder assuming someone else would take the call. It was the beginning of accountability.
By signing up for coverage the volunteer could cover calls by responding from home or one of the stations, being paid $5 for signing up and $4.35 per each call. A few members took advantage of this and have stepped up to make sure calls were covered. But not every day or every hour is covered. This was only a start until we had the chance to go to the voters to pass a new budget that would allow volunteers to start covering shifts part time, and better our coverage and response times.
The Rescue Department had 2 ambulances, both housed in the Blasdell Station on Rt 202.  I decided for better coverage to all areas of town, to move one ambulance to the Fire Station, this way volunteers covering shifts could respond to the station closer to their homes
Now it has been 6 months since I took office. On June 12, 2015  I met with the Sanford Fire and Rescue folks to talk about the $2000 billing they were charging because in the past, our ambulance was not attending to all our town's calls and Sanford was responding in our place. Sanford had also said that they would no longer be able to provide mutual aid to Lebanon at one point. Sanford is now back to providing mutual aid, but they were still charging that $2000 if they would have to be the sole ambulance responding to calls in Lebanon. 
I now have something to work with in explaining to other departments. Our budgets have passed and I am now working on the plans to put  part time shifts which will make sure the Lebanon Rescue Department is always staffed. The Sanford agencies are happy with the amount of  progress being made in Lebanon since I became Chief. They have, at this time, agreed to stop charging the $2000 fee should they need to be the sole responder on a Lebanon Emergency call. There have been a few charges of $2,000 in the past, but they are also working on having those bills cleared from their books.

Please see this note from the City of Sanford Fire Department.

6/12/2015
Chief-
Thank you for meeting with Chief Cutter and me today It was a very productive session.  First let me reiterate that the City of Sanford Fire Department has agreed to stop charging your town an “Initial Response Fee” due solely because of your great work on this matter.  We have watched great things happening in Lebanon because of your leadership, stability, and courage to take the appropriate actions to fix problems.  We look forward to strengthening our relationships more as time goes on so our communities may yield the benefits of a strong Fire/EMS system in this area.  It is good to hear that the people of the town are supporting your efforts.  Thank you again for your work in this matter and if you need anything please don’t hesitate to call me. 
Steven R. Benotti Fire Chief
City of Sanford Fire Department

I have also reached out to Frisbie Memorial Hospital to begin building a stronger partnership with them. During negotiations with the education director, an agreement was reached which would give the Rescue department an educational grant in order to help build our staff of medical professionals. We have several students studying to become EMTs at Frisbee Hospital at the time of this writing.
Frisbee Hospital's EMT grant, was a great benefit to the Department and to our town. A typical Basic EMT course normally runs about $900 or more per person, and would have to be paid by the individual volunteer. This grant has allowed more people to be trained in EMT work so that they may become volunteers for our Rescue Department.
With the progress that has been made with the Rescue billing company Comstar, I visited the company in May along with Selectmen Ben Thompson to talk about the billing process and about dropping the rate for billing.  The company who has seen much improvement in the Rescue Department agreed to lower the rate by a whole point. Then after review of the new contract Selectmen Thompson had the rate lowered again by a quarter point. This is a very large boost for the people of Lebanon.
Work is continuing on both Fire and Rescue sides of our newly combined department to update policies, gear and equipment.