Trent Town Board Chairman Bob Dickey plans to stay on the council despite a fellow board member’s call for his resignation.

“I ain’t guilty of nothing,” he said. “I’m not going to bail. I’ve been in this town all my life.”

Dickey, 61, has spent at least 35 years either serving on the board or involved in the city in some capacity.

At a Dec. 12 meeting, fellow council member Matt Larson called for Dickey’s resignation, saying the board chairman had done things that he described from unethical to illegal. Larson also said several citizens had complained about Dickey, including one who said he had entered their house without permission and another who said he had told people at the bar that she was delinquent on her water bill. Others said Dickey used city equipment for non-city work.

At the meeting, Dickey said there was a lot of things said that were misrepresented, and he did not resign.

Trent’s council meets at 6 p.m. Jan. 2, a meeting in which the next board chairman will be elected by the three-member council. In addition to Dickey and Larson, Jonathan Damm serves on the board.

Dickey said people assume things without knowing all the facts. If he has cleaned snow from in front of his shop with city equipment, it’s because he doesn’t get paid for cleaning the streets for residents. He also uses his own tools for city work, he said. He and others also have used their own equipment to volunteer to cut down trees and do other work, ending with a cookout together. No city equipment was involved, he said.

“The city doesn’t own as much as a screwdriver or a scoop shovel. That’s all my stuff that I’ve furnished forever,” he said of tools used on various projects.

Dickey, who is the water and sewer employee for Trent, said he hasn’t entered houses without permission, his daughter hasn’t mowed grass at any family member’s house with the city mower as some have said, and while at the bar, he hasn’t named specific people who owe money to the city but has said he was working on delinquent accounts.

“That’s all exaggeration,” he said of the complaints made by Larson and others at the meeting.

He said the city doesn’t have much money in reserves and will need to cut spending, something that has added fuel to the division between people in town, including those who support Larson and those who support him.

“The only reason a lot of them are mad at me - they don’t understand the city is about out of money,” he said.

The town board has voted to add a second penny sales tax starting in July in order to raise more money, but citizens recently took out petitions to successfully refer that decision to a public vote. While Dickey voted in favor of the additional tax, he also signed the petition to take it to a vote because it’s the peoples’ right to have a say, he said. “We’re just giving the people the right to decide what they want.”

Dickey isn’t sure how to solve the feud between he and Larson.

“He doesn’t stop. He’s vindictive,” Dickey said. The two, who live on the opposite ends of the small town of 238 people are also on opposite sides of most issues that have come up. And they don’t appear to have much in common. Dickey, who owns a repair shop, is a fifth-generation resident in the community. Larson, a realtor, is a relative newcomer, having moved to Trent less than three years ago from Jasper, Minn.

Neither is happy with the other and distrusts what the other does.

Larson said the community discussions, in the end, will make things better. “I think it will end with a more positive town that doesn’t have to live in fear and can accomplish great things,” he said.

As for Damm, the neutral board member in the middle, he sees a need for communication and working things out for the good of the town. He doubts there is retaliation for disagreements going on from either side of the issue.

“We’re a pretty small town. Generally, we’re a pretty quiet town,” he said.

“We need to focus on working better together to get to the root of the issues,” he said. As for what accusations are true and which aren’t, he’s not sure what to believe.

“We need to investigate and find out if there’s any truth behind it. Right now, it’s just accusations,” he said. The focus needs to be on the community, not on disagreements. “The purpose of the board is for everyone to look out for the betterment of the town and make sure the town functions correctly.”