DUMMERSTON — On a motion by Lewis White, seconded by Bill Holiday, the Selectboard voted 5-0 to appoint Keith Marshall to the Recreation Board.
The vote came at the end of the Oct. 30 Selectboard meeting, some time after some Selectboard members apologized to rec chairwoman Sarah Evans for comments made Oct. 16 about spending for soccer supplies.
Evans had asked for the apology pointedly, saying her expenses had been approved, her request for certain reimbursements was proper, and that the board had called her reputation into question.
A 42-minute discussion followed, the upshot being that the Recreation Committee is working to rebuild its membership, that a treasurer had been identified and would be on board soon to submit a formal budget, and that the committee needs to hold warned meetings to conduct its business.
On Oct. 16, Selectboard Member Lewis White complained about the expenditures of the Recreation Board apparently exceeding the amount approved at the Oct. 2 meeting. Board Chair Zeke Goodband had said he would contact Evans.
On Oct. 30, Evans sat down before the Selectboard and demanded a public apology over White's public remarks.
“I have a reputation I am thus far proud of in this town and as a self-employed business owner. And for other parents to mention to me that they had seen that in the paper is not something that I enjoy facing. Especially as it wasn't based on facts; it was false,” she said.
White shifted in his chair as he replied: “When I came in and looked at the debit card, and the meeting before [Oct. 2] we had approved 300-some-odd dollars, and when I looked [Oct. 16] it was already up to $690-something, so to me that was a little bit more than what we had approved.”
Evans maintained the Selectboard hadn't given her requested estimates for everything she would need to purchase late in the season for the soccer program, but that it had authorized her in writing to get what the program needed to match previous years' supplies.
She said she spent, out of her own pocket, conservatively: for example, buying the young athletes in the program medals instead of trophies, and giving her coaches less costly tokens of appreciation for their hard work than in previous seasons.
White didn't appear to apologize at the meeting, but he did counsel Evans not to pay for recreation department supplies and activities out of her own pocket.
“You should get paid for everything you spent on that receipt for the awards ceremony. I don't think you should be cutting yourself short,” he said.
Selectboard Member Bill Holiday emphasized that the Recreation Committee, like every town body, needs to file a budget with the selectboard, “even though there was a sizable balance in the [recreation] account, and it had the trappings of comme ci, comme ça .”
Holiday took up another complaint of Evans: that although she is entrusted to run the rec program, selectmen have the final say on expenditures.
“I don't think this board wants necessarily to be nitpicking every line item, but on the other hand there should be an estimate of what soccer is going to cost, and basketball, and trail marking or whatever else,” he said.
In the end, Evans secured an apology from Goodband, Selectman Joe Cook, and even Selectboard Assistant Laurie Frechette.
“[Evans] did what she was supposed to do, and I wish this hadn't happened, and unfortunately it did, and I apologize,” Frechette said.
Evans was flanked at the meeting by Recreation Committee members Ruth Barton and Layla Lewis, and former members Anna Piergentili and Jill Williams.