FARMINGTON – Two of the county’s three commissioners made a last ditch effort to stop county funding for two agencies Tuesday morning.

But because Commissioner Gary McGrane didn’t agree with them about funding Sexual Assault Victims Emergency Services and SeniorsPlus, the attempt failed, and funding will go to those agencies.

Earlier this year, commissioners recommended to the county’s nine-person Budget Committee to give $11,385 to SAVES and $36,000 to SeniorsPlus.

At last week’s public budget hearing, several people, including Jay Town Manager Ruth Marden and Avon selectman John Calloway, voiced strong opposition to one stop funding, saying towns should have home rule.

In the end, the Budget Committee voted 8-1 to fund those two agencies, with the stipulation that the agencies will not request individual funding from towns or unorganized territories.

But when it came time Tuesday morning for commissioners to approve the county’s $3,868,396 budget for 2004, Commissioners Meldon Gilmore and Fred Hardy said they wouldn’t approve the budget as agreed upon by the Budget Committee after last week’s hearing.

“I don’t agree with this budget,” Hardy said, because of the county funding for SAVES and SeniorsPlus. Gilmore agreed.

At first, the budget failed 2-1, with Gilmore and Hardy opposed.

Gilmore suggested that no money be raised for SAVES and SeniorsPlus, and commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of that, with McGrane opposed, saying that commissioners had recommended funding in the first place, and should not go against their earlier ruling.

However, in order for the budget, or a portion of it, to go back to the Budget Committee, commissioners must be unanimous in their opposition. Because McGrane would not vote against funding the agencies, the budget stayed as is and is now official.

The budget is up 9.31 percent from 2003.

Commissioners agreed on the $914,010 budget for the county’s unorganized territories for the fiscal year 2004-05. That budget must be approved and adopted by the state.

The only holdup in the unorganized territories budget is that the commissioners have not agreed to pay the amounts requested by Rangeley for providing fire protection, ambulance and solid waste disposal for residents in the northern unorganized territories.

Rangeley is requesting a drastic amount more than last year, and commissioners don’t want to pay. In the unorganized territories budget, they funded Rangeley the same as this year, and if the town doesn’t agree with that the county will look to hire Sandy River Plantation or Eustis to provide services for those in the northern unorganized territories.

Because that budget doesn’t go into effect until next summer, commissioners and the town have time to work out the details or to find a new provider, county clerk Julie Magoon said.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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