Board dispute boils over after Chichester town meeting
Published: 5/15/2021 4:48:29 PM
Officials in Chichester breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday, thankful that their annual town meeting, full of potential for fireworks because of recent infighting on the select board, wrapped up after two-hours of civil discourse.
Then, minutes after the meeting had ended, a heated, demonstrative face-off occurred between Select Board members Richard Bouchard and Jason Weir, causing the issue over Weir’s eligibility to serve on the board to resurface.
Most of the residents had filed out of Chichester Elementary School by the time the two board members revisited an old feud that’s been bubbling for months. The scene overshadowed the $2.78 million budget that had just been approved, with some spirited yet reasonable debates over taxes and their connection to capital reserve funds, highway and rescue equipment, and a purchase and sales agreement.
In Chichester, a selectman’s refusal to wear a mask spurs debate over what is ‘right’
Tom Houle, seen here in March 2020, said he was a friend of Jason Weir’s, but disagreed with him over mask-wearing. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor file
GEOFF FORESTER Monitor staff
Published: 4/22/2021 3:56:25 PM
At a Chichester Select Board meeting last week, longtime resident Tom Houle sought to tear down a former ally’s soapbox.
Via Zoom, Houle, in an understated yet pointed manner, told Selectmen Jason Weir that his refusal to wear a mask at the Select Board meeting on April 6, which forced a week’s postponement, was selfish.
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A killer has been found dead just four weeks after his brother, who was convicted of the same murder, took his own life.
Ian Weir (35) will be buried on Tuesday after his lifeless body was discovered last Tuesday. His younger brother Jason Weir (34) died from suicide in Magilligan Prison on February 9.
The siblings and their millionaire farmer father Jimmy Seales (60) were convicted of the 2012 shotgun murder of Philip Strickland in Comber, Co Down.
Because Ian gave evidence against his dad in court, he was given a reduced sentence of life with a minimum four-year tariff.
He was freed from prison in 2019 and had been staying at the Thompson House probation hostel in north Belfast.
SEARCH: Forensics examine an area near where Philip Strickland was gunned down
Seales was sentenced to life with a minimum 14-year tariff while Ian, who gave evidence against his dad, was jailed for just four years.
Prison sources say they cannot understand why Jason Weir took his own life when he was due to be freed later this year. His death has come as a huge shock to everyone, staff and inmates alike, explained a Magilligan insider. Jason was popular enough with the other prisoners, he didn t have any enemies and was always talking about getting out soon. He seemed to have withdrawn into himself these last few weeks and isolated himself from his friends, but no one had any idea that he was feeling suicidal.