HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Town Council accepted a number of donations that are going to be used to better the town or its departments during Monday night’s meeting.
Those donations included $915 from the “Friends of the Boy and The Boot” that will be used for the maintenance of the Boy and The Boot statue in Pierce Park. It is the 100th anniversary of the statue this summer. Bernie Holmes led the effort to raise money for the statue through a GoFundMe page.
Three picnic tables, valued at $900, also were donated to the town from the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office. They will be located at the gun range at the Houlton Industrial Park.
The police department accepted 15 Motorola XTS 5000 radios and three radio chargers from the U.S. Department of Defense through the Caribou Police Department. The donation is worth approximately $8,000.
The police department also accepted a donation from Star Signal Vehicle Products for four mini phantom lights, one remote, one mount siren control and one cyclone speaker for its 2015 Ford F-150. The value of the hardware was $900.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Houlton Police Chief Joe McKenna told town councilors on Monday, that the department’s new vehicle sustained “extensive damage” after it was involved in an accident on Friday evening.
According to McKenna, he was driving on the Ludlow Road at approximately 5 p.m. when he saw a man in his “mid-30’s driving recklessly on an ATV.” The chief said he activated his lights and went to make a U-Turn in the road when he was struck broadside by a 17-year-old in a Honda CRV.
McKenna said the department had three ATV’s run from police over the weekend, and it was a situation they planned to address in the future with extra patrols from local law enforcement.
