AUBURN – The Androscoggin County Commission responded favorably to a request from Sheriff Ronald Gagnon to salvage the dive team Wednesday.
The underwater search and rescue team fell victim to budget cuts in January.
At issue was $9,000 earmarked for training that was eliminated from the budget, leaving concern that the dive team might be disbanded.
Commission Chairman Elmer Berry said he opposes eliminating the team and wants to find funding for it.
He said the most criticism he had heard about the 2005 budget was the lack of funding for monthly training for divers.
“I don’t think we can wait for a state police response (in the event of an emergency requiring a rescue in the Androscoggin River or Lake Auburn),” Berry said.
“We feel that we have to somehow hold that team together,” he said, and the commission is looking feverishly to see if we can find the money.”
The $9,000 to fund 12 training sessions for the year is vital, said Sgt. David Trafford, a certified diver and former member of the sheriff’s dive team.
“If they can’t get their training, they shouldn’t be in the water. They would be a liability,” he said.
In another matter stemming from the budget process, the commission accepted a report from the Sheriff’s Department on the Civil Process Division.
In December, Civil Process won a reprieve from the Budget Committee after committee member Michael Bowie questioned a line item calling for an expenditure of $175,948 to operate the program in 2005.
At that time, Chief Deputy Guy Desjardin countered with a proposal to add expedited process serving where the county could charge an additional $20 per paper.
Desjardins reported to the commission Wednesday that a comparison of papers served in January 2004 to this January shows an increase in the number of customers and revenue over the same period in 2004.
Trafford told commissioners that Civil Process has served 413 papers in 2005 as compared to 263 at the same time last year.
“If you look at the dollar amounts, we’re up $3,000 to $4,000 so far,” Trafford said.
In other business, the commission approved a motion by Patience Johnson banning all tobacco use in the courthouse, forcing users of chewing tobacco to join smokers outdoors.
The issue was not on the agenda.
The commission is expected to revisit the issue of smoking on county property in March.
On Jan. 10, they discussed several options for banning smoking on county property and restricting it to one location on the courthouse grounds.
That discussion came in response to complaints by nonsmokers about having to wade through groups of smokers to enter county buildings.
At issue are complaints about smoking by individuals and groups as large as 10 to 15 people near entrances to the courthouse and jail.
Currently, there are no designated smoking areas for county employees, Superior Court witnesses and jurors.
No specific smoking policy exists except that there is no smoking allowed inside county buildings.
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