The department met last week because they are “rapidly running out of resources.”
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Sheriff Dennis Pike says Franklin County’s deputy shortage is a crisis that is putting added strain on the current squad.

Another full-time deputy should be on the roster by the end of July and the entire force will be back to full strength by year’s end, possibly as early as October, according Pike.

The department relies on the manpower of six full-time patrol deputies and two corporals. They have only four full-time deputies including Heidi Gould, Michelle St. Clair, Brent Howard and Sandy Burke and two corporals – Nathan Bean and Stephen Charles.

The county is down two deputies because of the National Guard activation last October for Kenneth Charles and the resignation of Sarge Daigle after his expulsion from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in June.

Charles is expected back this year, Pike says. Because of federal law, his position must be held for him until he returns. Starting next month, deputy Howard will attend the police academy and will be off the squad for 18-weeks.

Reserve deputies Aaron Turcotte, a full-time patrol officer with the Rangeley Police Department and David Radcliffe, a full-time paramedic for Franklin Memorial Hospital have filled in temporarily and on an as-needed basis since February. Pike says those deputies can only work so many hours because of their full-time jobs and because of state restrictions.

Last week, the department met because they are “rapidly running out of resources,” says Pike. A suggestion that the county’s special detectives, David St. Laurent and Thomas White, be placed on three-day-a-week patrol to help with the “crisis” was quickly tossed out.

Instead, current deputies have agreed to work extra hours, says Pike, and the county’s dozens of reserve deputies will be utilized more often. Full-time deputies must work 168 hours per month before they begin collecting time-and-a-half overtime pay, he added.

A deputy to replace Daigle should be hired by the end of July. Six people have applied for the position. Interviews will be conducted within the next few weeks and a person will be named by the the close of the month.

In the doghouse

Ben, the county’s only canine unit, is laid-up temporarily.

The German shepherd has been out for nearly a month with a broken foot, which was recently removed from its cast, says Pike.

Ben, handled by Cpl. Bean, should be back in the next two weeks though.

The county has relied on canines from the Maine State Police and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Department. Canines from those outside agencies have been called in three times, said Pike.

Suited up

County dispatchers will be back in uniform soon.

Since dispatchers moved into their call center at the Sheriff’s Department, nicknamed “The White House,” they have not had uniforms or a dress code. Thanks to a $500 grant from MBNA, they will now have uniforms from the waist up. Wearing them will not be made mandatory.

On Tuesday, Franklin County commissioners approved a motion that will earmark the $500 to buy three short sleeve polo-style shirts for each of the eight full time dispatchers and one dispatch supervisor.

Dispatchers are the only employees within the Sheriff’s Department that don’t receive “everything but socks and underwear,” notes Pike. Both deputies and corrections officers are fully outfitted.

The new shirts will be owned by the county, said dispatch supervisor Melinda Caton.

The uniforms will create a more professional look, said Commissioner Gary McGrane.

Although he was concerned about the cost of buying shirts, commissioner Fred Hardy agreed the shirts were a stylish move.

“Dispatchers are fully as important as anyone else we have,” he said, “and should not be discriminated against.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com