It was announced at Raymond’s Board of Selectmen meeting on Tuesday that convicted kidnapper Norman Dickinson, recently released on supervised parole, would not be relocated from Windham to Raymond. However, most residents had not even known that the Department of Corrections had planned to move Dickinson to the town last Friday.

The public announcement came in response to a letter that the board received a short time before Tuesday’s meeting. This letter, written by Raymond resident Lisa Friedlander, questioned the lack of notification to the public of a meeting she believed was held in which members of the board discussed the issues surrounding Dickinson’s relocation.

After a brief executive session to confer about the letter and to consult with the town’s attorney, Raymond Town Manager read the letter to those present at Tuesday’s meeting. He then explained that no board meeting had been called regarding the issue.

Willard said he had been notified of the plan to move Dickinson to Raymond last Wednesday by County Manager Peter Crichton. Feeling the plan was not in Raymond’s best interest, Willard called each selectman individually to get their reactions. Once he had verified that all were in agreement that the choice of location was unwise, Willard met with officials to discuss another arrangement.

“I was going to, on behalf of the town, take whatever measure was necessary to block this,” Willard said.

Dickinson, who had been released from prison the beginning of last month, has been living in a trailer outside the Maine Correctional Center in South Windham. But with the falling temperatures, the trailer’s heater failed to keep up, requiring the Center to seek alternate accommodations.

The Correctional Center made arrangements with Friedlander and her husband Thomas Cloutier to house Dickinson for two weeks in a home they own, located next to theirs on Gore Road. Cloutier’s business partner, Neale Duffett, is Dickinson’s attorney.

Willard said there were two reasons why he and the board felt Dickinson, who wears an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and is under 24-hour supervision, should not be relocated to Raymond: the town does not have a dedicated law enforcement presence and with the back of its property abutting a daycare on Webbs Mills Road, the Gore Road location is inappropriate.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Friedlander said that although she initially “had some safety concerns, they were being addressed.”

“The probation officer and the state police are doing the best they can to ensure the public’s safety,” she said. “I think people are reacting without all the information.”

As part of the agreement to house Dickinson at the Gore Road location, the Sheriff’s Office would have provided around-the-clock supervision at a cost of $14,500 for the two-week period. According to Willard, when Friedlander made the arrangements, she had stipulated two conditions – that Dickinson would be there for only two weeks and that there would be no cost to Raymond for this law enforcement coverage.

Friedlander did notify neighbor Teresa Sadak, whose daycare backs onto the Gore Road property, of Dickinson’s impending arrival.

Sadak was very upset and made calls to Willard and to the Department of Corrections.

“He’s broken out of every other parole situation that he’s been in,” Sadak said. “It’s too close – it’s too much of a risk.”

When asked if she would have been nervous with Dickinson living next door, Friedlander replied, “I wouldn’t have had my kids playing out in the woods unsupervised.”

She added that she thought his safety was more at risk than the neighbors’ because of the way people feel about him.

In a telephone interview, Capt. William Rhoads, of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, said that his department was not notified until late Friday that Dickinson would not be moving to Raymond.

But Rhoads, who has known Dickinson since he was a juvenile, agreed that the Raymond location was not appropriate.

“He is going to re-offend,” he said. “He’s not a pedophile, but he is a sexual predator.”

But Regional Correctional Administrator Lisa Nash does not agree with Rhoads’ assessment.

“The Raymond unit we felt was totally appropriate,” she said. “But for two weeks it was not worth disturbing that many people. We need to get him settled in a place.”

Nash is part of a six-person team involved with placing Dickinson. According to Nash, the team doesn’t feel he is “anywhere near the danger that people might have been led to believe.”

With a long history of incarceration, Dickinson needs help adjusting to the outside world. Part of the Department’s plan is to offer him life skills and mental health services.

“If there’s a real story here, it is that people come out of institutions and they’re out here,” Nash said. “We’re trying to do the right thing by giving them the best skills and tools we can give them. We’re trying to work on assessing people’s risk and getting them the services they need so they don’t keep re-offending.”

Since the commissioner is not required to disclose his location, for now Dickinson’s whereabouts remain confidential although it has been confirmed that he is not in Raymond.

“The town doesn’t wish to impede his rehabilitation,” Willard said. “We want him to have his rights.”

But Willard and the board do not believe it’s in anyone’s best interest that he live in their town.

“I’m relieved that he’s not going to be here in Raymond,” said Selectmen Chair Betty McDermott. “I think many, many people would have been upset.”