HOULTON, ME — Although councilors on Monday returned the bulk of town officials who were up for reappointment to their positions, they held off renaming Town Manager Butch Asselin as director of both the airport and emergency services.
Councilors tabled discussion on the matter for two weeks, so Asselin presently retains all three posts.
Discussion was spearheaded by Councilor Raymond Jay, who questioned why Ben Torres, the fixed base operator at Houlton International Airport, could not hold the post of airport director.
As fixed base operator, Torres is responsible for such duties as providing support services to pilots entering and leaving the airport as well as fueling and hangaring planes.
Asselin said that the post has always been held by town managers in the past, and that if Torres were named airport director, he would need a pay increase.
“We’d have to give him one,” Asselin said. “He is certainly not compensated enough to be doing airport director [tasks] on top of his duties already.”
The town manager said that Torres was doing a good job at the airport. But as airport director, Asselin said he deals with grant applications as they come in from the Federal Aviation Administration and other organizations, and he keeps track of where and how grant money is spent and to whom payments are rendered. He said he also is overseeing the work on a master plan update for the airport and efforts to eliminate hazards noted on a Safety Works inspection by the next examination date.
Jay wondered why the town simply couldn’t upgrade Torres’ title to airport manager to give Asselin more time to do his administrative duties at the town office.
Asselin encouraged Jay to join the airport advisory board to completely understand all of the responsibilities of the airport director and the fixed base operator. He said that aside from the town manager always serving in that position, it also seemed to be working well.
Councilor Rosa McNally agreed, saying that she believed in an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy in this case, but the matter was eventually tabled.
Since Asselin’s reappointments to both positions were listed on the Council agenda as a single item, the action also effectively but a hold on the emergency management post.
Asselin said Monday night that he has been involved in emergency management since 1997, served on the local emergency planning commission for a number of years, and last year was appointed by Gov. Paul LePage to serve on the Maine Emergency Response Commission.
He has worked for the town since 2007.
