STRONG — The town park on Burbank Hill has become a danger to adults and children because of lack of maintenance, according to selectmen.

Selectmen on Tuesday heard an update from the park’s liaison, Selectman Rob Elliott. At the last selectmen meeting, they authorized him to request the park committee to make repairs on several pieces of equipment. In order to keep the park open, safety issues needed to be addressed, including the repair of a hole on the gazebo floor and a broken railing on a pirate ship in the playground area.

The Lance Cpl. Scott B. Paul Memorial Town Park was built on town land, but a separate committee, headed by Susan Ellsworth, has raised money to build play areas, organize summer camps for area children and add amenities to the acreage.

The town authorizes an amount each year at the March town meeting to pay some of the expenses, including maintenance. The money for repairs was available in that account, and Ellsworth had agreed to find someone to do the repair work.

“I spoke with Sue Ellsworth the other day, and she told me everything was taken care of and not to worry about it,” he said.

He said he didn’t take her advice and recently checked on the playground repairs himself. A young family was visiting the playground, he said, and a child was using the pirate ship, despite the broken railing. He said a swing had been fixed, but none of the other equipment and safety issues had been addressed.

Selectmen debated whether to close the playground, but decided to hire someone to make the repairs immediately and take the money out of the playground fund. They also agreed to ask Ellsworth to come to a future meeting and discuss some of these maintenance and safety issues that place responsibility for liability on the town if someone gets hurt.

“It might be a good time to have Mrs. Ellsworth in for a conversation,” Selectman Mike Pond said. 

Mitchell said she had strong concerns that the parts of the TRIO accounting system that required more training. She said the office staff’s lack of training will impact the budget preparation process that is expected to start at the end of October or early November.

“I think they have a lot of questions that need to be answered,” Selectman Dick Worthley noted.

Selectman agreed to allow Mitchell and Dubois to schedule an on-site appointment for training with the Bangor-based Harris Co., which sells and installs the municipal software packages in the state.

In other matters, selectmen agreed to accept a $12,000 offer for a town truck and sell a dump body that no longer can be used.