LEBANON — The community has pulled together to help out a local man who has taken care of them – by taking care of their roads as their elected road commisisoner – for the past five years.
As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, a GoFundMe site to benefit Road Commisisoner Larry Torno, who has cancer, had reached nearly $5,900.
Selectmen informed Torno earlier this month that the town would no longer make its 70 percent contribution to Torno’s health insurance premiums.
The GoFundMe fund was started by Jim Durgin, who has been a family friend for 20 years, on Sunday. He said he was disturbed by the action by the three-member board of selectmen, and thought it would be a way to help the Torno family come up with the $1,800 monthly premium.
Residents of Lebanon and others who live nearby have eagerly donated to the fund.
Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson, in an email sent Monday night following a selectmen’s meeting, said the board wishes the road commissioner the very best.
“Decisions are not always easy to make as some would like to believe,” Thompson wrote. “The Board has researched this issue several times with input from several different entities. Unfortunately, the board’s decision is based on laws and policies put in place long before this situation came to be. We have been advised with the same information from the Federal Department of Wage and Labor, the Maine Department of Labor, MMA, our Town counsel, and our own individual research.”
He went on to cite state statutes and a town policy that went into effect in 2010 under the board of selectmen in office at the time ”“ Robert Forzzell, Jason Cole and Ronal Patc.
Thompson said the town’s legal counsel had researched the matter with all of the sources cited.
“Counsel has come to the same conclusion that all sources force our decision to be,” he wrote. “The Town is not required to pay the town portion of the road commissioner’s insurances. Furthermore, town policy prohibits it for all other employees based on what was approved in 2010.”
Pan Torno said her husband has been in and out of hospital since December, using his allotted vacation and sick time.
Durgin said when Torno became ill, it was devastating for his family – and devastating for his friends, as well.
And then came the notice that the town would no longer pay its contribution to his heath insurance benefit. Durgin said he did some research of his own and met with selectmen, to no avail.
“Illness happens to people, but what doesn’t usually happen, I don’t believe, is how he was treated by selectmen,” Durgin said Tuesday. “I cannot beleive what the town has done to this guy.”
The GoFundMe site is at: http://www.gofundme.com/lvk8fs.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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