County officials have right to charge town for dispatch services

LIVERMORE FALLS — The Androscoggin County Commission has the right to charge the town to take over dispatch services from Nov. 23 to Dec. 31.

Each county that has a communications center may set up its own system of how it wants to enter into service agreements for providing dispatch services for law enforcement, fire and rescue calls and to charge for those services if it chooses to do so.

"Each county is a separate unit of government, just as is each municipality, and absent a state statute dictating how fees must be set, they have some latitude in this area," said Robert S. Howe, executive director of the Maine County Commissioners Association.

Some counties that provide co-dispatch services base charges on a formula factoring in a per capita rate or call volume, while other counties such as Franklin and Oxford charge no fees for those services for towns in their counties because they pay county taxes.

Livermore Falls selectmen tabled action Monday on spending $5,500 to bridge a gap for a five-week period to have Androscoggin County Communications Center in Auburn take over police dispatch. Livermore Falls residents voted in September to close the dispatch center due to a loss of revenue and a paper mill closing.

County Commissioner Randall Greenwood of Wales informed the selectboard Monday what the price would be and how commissioners had reached that price.

Some residents questioned why it would cost the town for the county to take over the service since the town has paid county taxes for years.

By taking on Livermore Falls prior to the end of the year, more staffing is needed, and it would place a financial burden on the county's budget because that service was not factored into the current budget, Greenwood said Friday. The cost of the service will be included in the county's 2010 budget when it goes to commissioners and the county Budget Committee, he said.

The service for police dispatch would be paid for through county taxes next year, if the budget is approved, he said.

By charging Livermore Falls for coming on board in the midst of a budget year, Greenwood said, it sets a precedent that if Lewiston-Auburn or Lisbon communications centers decide to close midyear, there would be a service cost. The county would not be able to afford providing services for those dispatch services if it is not in the budget, he said.

Fire and rescue calls for Livermore Falls would be done on a per-call basis through a contract agreement with the county, Livermore Falls Town Manager Jim Chaousis said Friday.

The cost to bridge the gap for police dispatching has been reduced to $5,100 after a meeting this week and review of police call volume, Chaousis said. If the town continued operating dispatch service for that time, it would cost $13,500.

He is recommending that selectmen approve it, he said.

When deciding on how or if an agency would charge to provide communications service, you have to look at the various variables, Kennebec County Administrator Bob Devlin said Friday.

Those variables include staffing, call volume, level of service, new costs, infrastructure and type of agency in need of dispatching service, he said.

There are also policy questions and operational questions involved, Devlin said.

Different fees and cost structures can be adopted as a matter of policy, he said.

York County does not have a dispatch center anymore, York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette said.

"We are now dispatched by the Sanford Police Department and pay an annual fee of $400,000 for (public safety answering point) and police dispatch," Ouellette said. "So I think Livermore Falls got a good deal."

Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith said Pleasant Point and Down East EMS did away with its dispatch services during midbudget.

"The county now dispatches for both, and we do not charge," Smith said. "We also dispatch for several other towns without a fee."

Oxford County Regional Communications Center does not charge any fees for service for fire, police or rescue for towns within the county, center Director James P. Miclon said.

"Rumford Fire (Department) and then Rumford Police (Department) changed over to our dispatch center in the middle of budget year," he said. "We did not charge them anything, and still don't, other than what they pay the county through taxation. We did, however, add a full-time dispatcher in my budget in 2007 in anticipation that we would be taking on both agencies."

dperry@sunjournal.com