PALERMO: Pair pays $20,000 in fines with pennies

by Jonathan Strieff

Palermo residents will no longer be able to use loose change to make payments to the town office exceeding $100. The decision came following a months long dispute between the town council and residents Kurt Sherman and Dusty Haskell regarding a shore land zoning ordinance violation.

Earlier this year, Sherman and Haskell were fined $20,000 in civil court for failing to comply with the towns land use statutes. Last week, the pair made good on a threat to pay off the fine entirely in pennies. Town employees arrived at work in the morning to discover buckets of coins left outside the office, along with a request for a receipt.

“Our lawyer told us we had no obligation to accept this as payment,” said Select Board member, Bob Kurek. “We could have just called it litter and told them to come back and clean it up, but we didn’t want to stoop to that level.”

“I think they were trying to personally inconvenience us,” said Chairman Ilene McKenney, “but they must not have realized that, as select board members, we are not allowed to physically handle any money paid to the town. So, it’s just been the clerk and the assistant treasurer who have had to deal with this.”

As of last Thursday, officials from the local Bangor Savings Bank branch where the town office does its banking offered the use of their coin counting machines to process the payment. The receipt requested by Sherman and Haskell will be available following a final tally.