Published on March 3, 2010

WESTMORE -- Veteran Selectman John Alexander nearly lost his position on Tuesday to a young man with a passion for eradicating milfoil in Lake Willoughby.

Mr. Alexander defeated Jereme LeBlanc 23-22 in a paper ballot during the four-hour Town Meeting, which also saw voters approve a town budget of $480,000.

Mr. LeBlanc has been working to rid the lake of milfoil for much of the past five years. Milfoil is the topic of his senior thesis at Johnson State College, and he said he hopes to obtain an environmental job with the state.

Each candidate was given an opportunity to address the voters. Mr. Alexander went first, defending his nomination for a fourth term and saying it would probably be his last.

“We are in difficult times,” he said.  “I don’t think it’s going to get better soon.  I have been involved in boards for many, many years.  I have a lot of networking and I think that’s valuable.”

Mr. Alexander said he and the other board members have been careful about spending, and they “work together well as a team.”  He promised to assess the cleanup of the town garage, and to help develop better equipment and maintenance practices.

Mr. LeBlanc said his concerns were for the taxpayers and Lake Willoughby.

“I’d also like to see better access to public information and stop the overuse of executive session,” he said.  “In addition, double standards and decisions based on personal gain instead of what’s best for the environment, the town and the taxpayers need to end now. “

He added, “My generation will have to pay for the mistakes of previous generations as well as my own.  I feel it’s fair to have an input into some of the decisions that are made here in town.”

Mr. Alexander denied that the board overused executive sessions, which can be called to discuss certain matters behind closed doors.

“We follow the law,” he said.  “We follow the statute.  It clearly states what executive sessions can be used for.  To say we use excessive executive sessions is foolishness.  It’s not true.  I resent that personally.”

After the vote, Mr. LeBlanc said, “They haven’t heard the end of me yet.”

They did hear from him a short time later when milfoil came up again.  Voters approved a $35,000 appropriation to eradicate the weed in Lake Willoughby.

Mr. LeBlanc said the diving company currently in charge of eradication efforts is using a technique — suction harvest — that he said could make the problem worse.

“Suction is best used when an area is completely infested,” he said. “We don’t have the population of milfoil to justify such a technique.  In fact, you’ll spread fragments and spread the growth itself.”

Mr. LeBlanc said it is better to remove Willoughby’s milfoil by hand.

Moderator Vince Dotoli urged everyone to attend the next selectmen’s meeting, which is expected to consider the next milfoil eradication contract.

“Lake Willoughby is our greatest asset.  We have to protect it,” Mr. Dotoli said.

Voters also approved a $2,000 appropriation to write a dog ordinance for Willoughby’s North Beach. The proposed ordinance would allow enforcers to issue tickets to owners who take their dogs on the beach.  The town’s current dog ordinance deals only with dogs that are a threat or making too much noise.

“Where’s the teeth in this thing?” asked Peter Bertelitti, a member of the Westmore Planning Commission, who said he spent a lot of time on the beach during the past year as he recovered from an injury.

“There was not a day that went by there wasn’t a dog on the beach,” he said.  “Where’s the bite?  How do we enforce this?”

Glenn Harter, Westmore health officer, said dogs on the beach are a health problem as far as he is concerned.  He said most people will take their dogs off the beach if they are told to do so.

”A lot of them are out-of-staters,” he said. “They don’t read the signs.”

The appropriated $2,000 is the cost to write the ordinance, which according to Mr. Alexander was suggested by the sheriff.