Член совета деревни Таллер Лейк объяснил отставку конфликтом с пожарным и угрозой мэрша

Editor’s note: David Plummer, who resigned in recent weeks from his post as freshman trustee on the village board, went on record this week to share with his supporters some of the reasons he resigned. To the editor: My recent departure from the village board was prompted by the recent behavior of a long-time Tupper Lake firefighter, Joe Arsenault, who had been using social media to sell the village’s recently retired fire truck, No. 165, the blue one. I had been appointed as fire commissioner at the start of my first term at the village’s organizational meeting in December. I asked the department volunteer to remove the advertisement which he posted on his own volition. I told him to take it down until the board could make a decision on its disposal, because it is a village-owned truck. He wasn’t authorized to sell a piece of village equipment! The old pumper was purchased about 20 years ago from the Town of Peru and was one of the local department’s first line pumpers up until recently when it was replaced by the used Pierce pumper recently purchased by the village for about $250,000. What upset me was when Arsenault told me, with profanity, that me and the rest of the board “needed to get its f...ing act together.” I asked Mr. Arsenault to apologize, and he apparently refused. That’s when Mary (Mr. Arsenault’s wife, the mayor) started to put the kibosh on the matter. The incident was the subject on an executive session after the village board’s July monthly meeting. There was an incident too before the meeting when Mr. Arsenault was verbally aggressive with both me and his wife, the mayor. As a retired military officer and a registered nurse, I have been involved in a number of domestic disputes, and was bothered by Mr. Arsenault’s verbal assaults. He was verbally aggressive to both of us! In the executive session I proposed a minor disciplinary action against Mr. Arsenault. I was only talking about putting a letter in his personnel file with the condition it be removed six months from now. My proposal drew support from Trustees Eric Shaheen and Brasen LaVassaur. In that same session Mayor Fontana threatened to resign if they proceeded with disciplinary action against her husband. There is evidence of that in several village e-mails between her and her board members. I also thought that using the village e-mail system for her threats was also inappropriate. I wanted my comments and thoughts published this week because I thought I owed the more than 400 village voters who elected me last fall a more complete explanation. I’m not perfect but one thing I’ve always taken pride in is being ethical and fully transparent in all my personal and business dealings. Joe Arsenault worked as an employee of the village department of sewer and water up until recent years, and was for many years a part-time fire department driver. He has also held many offices in the TLFD. He is currently employed as a paid fireman with the Saranac Lake Village Fire Department. I am sorry it all came down to this! David Plummer