CANAAN — In a tense exchange Monday night during an otherwise business-as-usual meeting of the Canaan Select Board, board member Daniel Harriman denied that an incident last summer at Lake George Regional Park led to his decision to replace Canaan’s representatives on the park’s board of directors.

Harriman also said the park’s report about the June 2023 incident, which alleges he yelled at two teenage staff members and their supervisor in an altercation over a parking dispute, was not completely accurate.

Harriman cited reasons he provided in a written statement, which were a lack of communication, the cost to enter the park and a dispute over the road on the park’s east side.

“You asked me to state the reasons why I did not reappoint those five, and those are the reasons,” Harriman said.

Harriman made his comments as lawyers for the park and town of Canaan remained in legal disagreement about the appointment this year of five new members to the park’s board.

The Skowhegan Board of Selectmen and Canaan Select Board each appoints five people to the park corporation’s board, per the interlocal agreement that defines the park’s organizational structure. The original agreement expired in 2012, but it was resigned in 2018 and is valid today, according to officials.

The 320-acre park was once the home of Camp Modin, one of the oldest Jewish summer camps in the country. The park, off U.S. Route 2 in Skowhegan and Canaan, was purchased by the state in 1992. The state leases it to the towns of Skowhegan and Canaan, which rely on the Lake George Corp. to manage the park.

On March 28, the Canaan Select Board appointed five new members to the park’s board, while making several other routine municipal appointments.

On June 3, after a motion by current Select Board Chair Jeffrey Clarke, the Select Board rescinded the appointments.

That decision was reversed June 17 on the advice of the town’s attorney, Kenneth Lexier, leaving the new appointments made in March unchanged.

As Lexier and Claudia Raessler, the lawyer advising the park’s board, work through a disagreement about the length of terms of park board members, among other related legal issues with regard to the appointments, some residents have questioned why the five previous park board members were replaced.

Clarke, who was elected to the Select Board in March, has said he was not involved in discussions about replacing the Lake George board members because he was not on the Select Board at the time.

Megan Smith, the other member of the three-person Select Board, was on the Select Board when discussions would have taken place. But Smith has said multiple times during meetings she was not involved in those talks and does not know when they would have taken place.

That left residents and former board members to question Harriman, who has been on the Select Board for about 15 years, about the decision at a July 15 meeting.

Harriman said he did not want to answer questions about the matter during the meeting, but was willing to provide his response in a written statement to be made available at the Town Office at 277 Main St.

In the statement dated July 23, 2024, Harriman cited three reasons for his decision, most of which he had explained in early July in an interview with the Morning Sentinel.

The reasons:

• A lack of communication between the park and town officials about park operations and finances.

• “Disregard” from the Lake George board of directors about the park’s entrance fees.

• “The continued attempt by the Lake George board to gain control” of the road on the park’s east side in Canaan.

The road dispute centers on the enforcement of parking on the road of the Canaan side of the park, which is on state-owned land and maintained by the town.

At Monday’s meeting, Heather Kerner, a former park board member who was reappointed to the board after the resignation of one the new appointees earlier this month, said she thinks Harriman needs to acknowledge his conduct during and after the June 25, 2023, incident at the park, which stemmed from a disagreement over parking enforcement on the road.

“When you dismiss all five Canaan board members who had to call your behavior into question, that looks very suspect,” Kerner said. “That looks like a huge reason why you did that.”

Kerner cited a report she and JP Kennedy, the park board’s chairman, compiled immediately following the incident, based in part from written statements from staff members. As a best practice, park administrators created reports following incidents at the park, according to Kerner.

Kerner included the report in a July 9 letter to the Select Board and the Maine Municipal Association, expressing concerns about Harriman’s conduct and requesting a “constructive and community-oriented resolution.”

According to the report, a young staff member approached Harriman to tell him he was not allowed to park on the park’s east side road to allow for emergency egress. Harriman responded that he could park wherever he wanted since it is a public road, and said he would be taking down “No Parking” signs that park employees had placed along the road, the report states.

Harriman became “very agitated,” so the staff member, who was with another young staff member not involved in the conversation, left and notified a supervisor. When the supervisor, Park Resource Manager Eric Coulombe, arrived, he and Harriman had a verbal altercation involving profanity, and Harriman’s dog jumped onto Coulombe’s truck, according to the report.

“I am appalled that a town selectman would treat someone like this,” Coulombe wrote in his account. “I felt very degraded after this encounter.”

A deputy from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office responded about 20 minutes later but did not take further action after speaking with Harriman, in part because he is a selectman, Coulombe wrote.

The mother of the two young park employees contacted Darryll White, the park’s director, “insisting that the board back the staff as doing their jobs, as well as requesting that Park staff and board attend the next Selectmen’s Meeting on July 12, 2023, holding Mr. Harriman accountable for his inappropriate actions within the park,” according to the report.

A special Select Board meeting was set for later that week, on June 28, 2023, to discuss the issue. At the meeting, Harriman denied his behavior as being “abusive,” and board members said his behavior was “intolerable,” the report states.

Meeting minutes on the town’s website indicate that Lake George board members were at the meeting to discuss an incident involving a Select Board member and park staff members, which was the only discussion item on the agenda. It was followed by a 36-minute executive session.

Harriman said at Monday’s meeting his version of events is different than what the report describes.

According to Harriman, he was watching his grandson fish when a park staff member informed him he could not park where he was parked. Harriman responded that he was not going to move his vehicle.

“I did not raise my voice,” Harriman said at Monday’s meeting. “I did not holler and screech. I did not swear at these two teenagers. And my son will attest to that. And my grandson will attest to that.”

After the incident was brought to the attention of officials, Harriman said he apologized.

“I wrote a letter and apologized for making them feel uncomfortable,” Harriman said.

Maureen Delahanty, the new appointee to the Lake George board who resigned earlier this month, a decision she said she regrets, said at Monday’s meeting she could not imagine Harriman acting in the manner described in the report, and sided with him about his concerns about the park.

“I do hear within this community different concerns and complaints,” Delahanty said.

Clarke, the Select Board chairman who cut off the exchange between Kerner and Harriman, said he did not think the issue would be resolved Monday.

Town officials are working toward solutions regarding the disagreement over the new park board appointments, according to Clarke.

“Let’s just move on,” he said.