RICHFORD SELECTBOARD INVESTIGATES SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALLEGATIONS AT AMBULANCE
By Gregory J. Lamoureux
County Courier
The Richford Ambulance is again in the hot-seat among the happenings in Richford.
With the departure of several employees at the beginning part of the month, at least one of those employees made the accusation of sexual harassment among other members of the Ambulance Service.
In a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, members of the Selectboard gathered information related to the allegation, according to Selectboard Chair Linda Collins.
The County Courier reached out to Collins after word of the allegations began to spread through the community.
Collins said the Town has had their attorney review the allegations, and they don’t meet the level of sexual harassment. She said that would not keep the Town from taking the allegations seriously though.
Collins called the meeting as routine business, which does not require a public warning of such a meeting. She also noted that the discussions were sensitive in nature, and would be required to be done outside of the public realm.
According to Collins, the complaint filed with the Town by the people or people alleging sexual harassment was deemed not to be a public document by the Town’s attorney.
“We were meeting with a witness to the personnel matter,” Collins told the County Courier, “No money was being spent, or appropriated, so it falls squarely into section G of the open meeting law, and therefore doesn’t need to be a warned meeting.”
The County Courier learned that the allegations, made by disgruntled former employees of the service, have nothing to do with patient care, and are among personnel within the Ambulance service.
