Pickel appointed as interim Milo manager

Special town meeting
Thursday evening

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    MILO — After the contract of Town Manager David Maynard, who had been in the position for about two and a half years, was not renewed, the board of selectmen moved forward by appointing an interim town manager and starting a search committee during a March 31 meeting.

    “According to the town charter, it falls to Damien,” Select Chair Lee McMannus said about the town manager position being filled on an interim basis by the Milo police chief — Damien Pickel.
    “We are putting together a search committee for a new town manager,” McMannus said, before the board voted to go with a $2,500 service through the Maine Municipal Association (MMA) to assist in the process. “They give you the candidates and they do the background searches.”
    In years past, a town manager search committee has been comprised of the selectmen and several citizens. For this committee, the board decided on five members representing different facets of the community. In addition to McMannus, serving on the search committee will be Town Treasurer Robin Larson, Gordon Smith of JSI, SAD 41 Superintendent Michael Wright and resident Kevin Black (who also is the public works operations supervisor for the town of Brownville).
    “I think it’s a strong list on its face, and it’s also not going to be cumbersome,” Selectman Peter Hamlin said about the committee members and the size of the group.
    The search committee will work with MMA over the ensuing few months, with the aim to have several finalists for town manager who would then meet with the selectmen to choose the top candidate.
    In other business, a special town meeting was scheduled for Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the town hall to discuss public works equipment and the acceptance of grant money for a boating facilities fund.
    “We need to have it because we need to get rolling, especially on the trash truck,” McMannus said, with a sidewalk machine and dump truck also set to appear on the town meeting warrant.
    Town officials are also looking to schedule a public hearing on a business district improvement ordinance, with Tuesday, May 12 mentioned as a possibility.
    “The purpose of this is to protect property,” Selectman Jerry Brown said. “This is setting up where the business district is, the residential district,” McMannus added.
    “Stuff will be laid out so you can know what you can do in certain parts of town,” Hamlin said, saying such specifications are not currently in place.
    “There is a process if you are already established,” McMannus said, such as going to the planning board or board of appeals.
    “For the month of March, we have drawn 200 incidents,” Pickel said about the police department. He said among the incidents have been 10 crashes, 18 ambulance calls, six operating under the influence arrests and five arrests for domestic violence.
    Pickel also said he wanted to tell town officials and those in attendance about a recent incident in town. “We received information back in February of a mobile meth lab, that a subject in town was producing methamphetamine in a portable backpack” he said, calling it a “bomb in a backpack.”
    The subject was identified and with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA), the subject was followed electronically after making a large Sudafed purchase in Bangor. “We followed him as he came back into town and watched him pick up the stored backpack,” Pickel said. The chief said the subject made purchases of items in Milo than can be ingredients for meth and was followed to his mobile home, but the MDEA was unable to obtain a search warrant.
    Pickel said he visited the mobile home to serve paperwork on an unrelated matter “and I noticed products consistent with making methamphetamine.” He said a discussion indicated meth had been made, but there was not enough evidence remaining to make an arrest.
    This particular lab may have been shut down with what transpired, “but that doesn’t mean there is not another one popping up,” Pickel said. He said there have been difficulties in working with other agencies on such cases.