SABATTUS — The town will hire an independent investigator to sort out the details of an ongoing dispute between the fire department and Town Manager Timothy Kane, it was decided Tuesday night.

The matter was addressed before a packed house at town hall as roughly five dozen residents and a handful of news reporters turned out to hear discussion of the matter at a regular town meeting.

Over the weekend, a fire official circulated a document, signed by dozens of Sabattus residents, expressing loss of confidence in Town Manager Kane. By the start of the Tuesday night meeting, more than 100 citizens had signed the ‘no confidence’ letter.

The document, prepared by firefighter and lifelong Sabattus resident Austin Gayton, is part of a packet outlining various complaints about Kane’s handling of city business. The packet has grown to contain more than 100 pages plus audio and video files. At the start of the Tuesday night meeting, Gayton handed out copies of that packet, compiled in white binders, to the media and to others residents.

Early in the meeting, when the matter of Gayton’s petition was raised for the first time, Selectman J.P. Normand LaPlante quickly made a motion to hire an independent investigator to look into it. Once the matter was voted on, no further discussion about the dispute was allowed — a move that did not go over well with some citizens.

“A lot of people want answers,” said one woman, a Sabattus resident since 1957. “And we’re not getting them.”

As it turns out, the rule was not a hard one and several comments were made about the dispute despite the earlier ruling. Kane himself stood briefly to address the crowd about the complaints outlined in Gayton’s ‘no confidence’ letter.

“The petition,” Kane said, “contains a lot of false claims. And I have recommended, before they made this motion, that the board initiate an investigation into the allegations so that I have a full and fair opportunity to address any questions or concerns that are raised by an independent investigator not related to this town.”

Gayton’s petition implies ongoing issues between the town manager and the people who work under him. The situation came to a head last week, though, when popular Fire Chief Troy Cailler announced he was retiring after disputes with Kane. Among the complaints lodged by Gayton and Cailler were that Kane refused to properly address a boiler issue at the fire station, which they say resulted in a lack of hot water the department needs for a variety of purposes, including decontamination.

“They get covered with blood and oil and gas and they can’t come back and decontaminate at the station,” said resident Robert Gayton, “and I know for a fact you could have replaced that boiler for under $6,000.”

Many praised the evolution of the fire department under Cailler’s leadership while others asserted that money being spent on the rapidly growing department is bound to cause an increasing tax burden for the average citizen.

“We have to be able to afford to live here,” one man said.

Former Chief Cailler, who was not at the meeting, has implied that Kane has been trying to halt growth at the fire department, which was part of the reason Gayton created a petition. Kane, however, sees it differently.

“It is important for the public to understand,” he told the crowd, “that the petition is motivated by actions that I have taken as a town manager, to hold the Sabattus Fire Department properly accountable to the taxpayers and elected officials of Sabattus.”

A few at the meeting praised the work Kane has done since he took over as town manager in 2021. One woman, Laura Clifford, who runs the farmers market in town, said that every time she reaches out to the town manager with questions about the business, she gets an answer, regardless of the hour of the day.

Another woman echoed those comments, and suggested that those complaining about Kane in the wake of the fire department fray are not getting all the information because they don’t attend town meetings regularly.

A few criticized the firefighters for going to the media with their complaints, creating divisions within the normally tight knit community and creating an air of hostility.

“You can cut the tension with a knife right now,” said 76-year-old Paul Curran, who has lived his whole life in Sabattus. “It’s really embarrassing and it’s really a shame. … It’s a shame when people are pitted against each other without all the facts.”

Former Selectman Guy Desjardins observed that much of the dispute has been argued on social media, where tempers flare and facts are often in short supply. The result, he said, is a town in turmoil.

“It’s so divided right now,” Desjardins said, “and it hurts.”

Selectboard Chair Mark Duquette sat out the Tuesday night meeting since he is named in Gayton’s documents complaining about the town’s response to problems. Gayton’s packet included emails implying that Duquette had failed to intervene in the dispute with Kane. Duquette said he was out of town addressing a personal matter when the situation first arose and that he was not aware, at the time, that his help was being sought.

The fractious gathering Tuesday night came just a week before the town’s annual Town Meeting, which is slated for May 24. Although that does not provide an independent investigator time to look into the matter — especially since one hasn’t been hired yet — some are hoping that the big meeting next week will not be haunted by bad feelings that have arisen during the dispute.

“I really hope that we’ve been looking at the agenda; that we can look at each individual article and vote as a team — as a town — and put this aside for now,” Desjardins said. “Let’s get a good Town Meeting going, vote what we feel and move forward.”

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