LIVERMORE FALLS – A legislative bill that would enable Livermore Falls’ voters to consider switching from Androscoggin County to Franklin County was “dead in the water,” Town Manager Alan Gove said Monday.
The Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government voted 6-3 during a work session Friday against L.D. 1316, Gove said. The committee held a public hearing April 4 on the proposal, and held a work session on it Friday.
The bill will still go to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote, Gove said, but with the committee’s “ought not to pass” recommendation, he doesn’t think it will be approved.
Livermore Falls residents voted 800-423 in a November straw poll to have town officials study the feasibility of switching to Franklin County.
Androscoggin County has 12 towns and two cities. Livermore Falls is in its northeastern corner. Franklin County, which stretches to the Canadian border, has 18 towns, four organized plantations, 22 unorganized townships and three gores.
Livermore Falls is closer to Franklin County’s county seat, Farmington, than it is to Auburn, Androscoggin County’s county seat.
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