RUMFORD – Rumford paid about $130,000 more for county law enforcement services in 2004 than it received, and selectmen asked the Sheriff’s Department to explain why Thursday night.
“Every town is assessed by its valuation and Rumford has the highest valuation of any town in the county,” said Sheriff Skip Herrick. “Rumford does pay the most.”
Rumford pays nearly a half-million dollars in county taxes.
Herrick said the Sheriff’s Department provides backup for Rumford police officers and is often heavily involved in drug investigations. Rumford has also recently turned over much of its dispatching to the county’s communications center in Paris.
Chief Deputy Jim Davis said he views the county assessments for towns the same as he looks at any other service provided by assessment.
“We could go to fee for services, but that’s not how we’re set up in this state. And these figures could all vary next year,” he said.
He said the figures presented also didn’t include drug work, summer event coverage and other duties the Sheriff’s Department provides.
“There’s still about $130,000 that Rumford pays,” said board Chairman Jim Thibodeau.
“Your argument isn’t with the county, but with some of the other towns,” Davis said.
He said he believed there were other services the county could provide for Rumford that could cut town costs, but he did not elaborate.
The meeting was triggered by proposed legislation by the town of Bethel that sought to reduce the amount of county taxes paid for law enforcement by towns that operate their own police departments.
Figures showed that several towns with police departments, including Norway, Paris, Oxford, Mexico and Dixfield, received a total of $300,000 in Sheriff’s Department services more than what they paid for.
County Commissioner David Duguay also attended the meeting.
Thibodeau said after the meeting that the board will likely discuss the report in depth later and then decide if there was some action the town could take to reduce its costs.
Hearing the Sheriff’s Department’s presentation will “help us make a judgment in the future,” he said.
In a related matter, Duguay told the board that the county tax for this year has been cut by nearly 7.7 percent, or nearly $40,000, for Rumford because of a slight reduction in valuation.
Comments are no longer available on this story