Mayor wants ban after town trash trucks used in marriage proposal. Fire chief fights to keep option for firefighters

Mayor Mort Meyers says things have gotten out of hand and the Ashburn town council agrees. On Friday, the entire town sanitation department drove their garbage trucks to an office building on West 10th Street to help co-worker Lou Austero propose to his long-time girlfriend Lucille Sitwell.

The mayor and council received many complaints after an army of sanitation engineers marched into the Bluth Building carrying Austero concealed inside a small trash dumpster. While Sitwell was pleasantly surprised when the contents of the dumpster where dumped on her desk and Austero appeared, many of her co-workers at the law office of Barry Zuckerkorn were quite distressed.

“We are still trying to get the stench out of the office”, said office manager Kitty Sanchez. “There was still trash inside the can, including rotting food. It’s clear someone didn’t think this through very well.”

Maggie Lizer, an attorney in Zuckerkorn’s office, sent a letter to Mayor Meyers demanding the town pay for the cleaning of the office and removal of the stench.

Austero says he got the idea from two recent proposals by other city workers that became viral videos on YouTube. One was the proposal by Firefighter Tony Wonder in March. In that video, two Ashburn fire trucks can be seen responding with sirens blaring to Carl Weathers Real Estate on Spruce Street. Firefighters, including Wonder, then run in and grab Wonder’s girlfriend Debrie Bardeaux. Once outside Wonder pops the question.

A month later, Ashburn Police Officer Steve Holt, a member of the Blaine County Joint Hostage Rescue Team, set up a similar proposal to his girlfriend Trisha Thoon. That video was removed from YouTube after neighbors on Thoon’s street in Boyce woods complained to both town and county officials. The residents claimed they were quite scared after being awakened at 4:00 a.m. by the sound of a concussion grenade as HRT members entered Thoon’s home.

“I think people tolerated this use of town property and resources when it was just firefighters doing these proposals because of their image in the community”, said Mayor Meyers. “I don’t think people are willing to cut the same slack for police or our sanitation crew”. Meyers has asked the town council to come up with clear regulations that generally prohibit this practice.

Fire Chief Gene Parmesan has asked for an exception to these rules for firefighters. Parmesan told council members that because the department’s paid firefighters basically live at the firehouse 24-hours at a time, it might be considered a hardship to handle these important personal events on their own time. In addition, Parmesan wants to keep the proposal using town fire equipment as a recruiting incentive for the department’s dwindling volunteer force.

The council is expected to vote on this issue before the summer recess.