LIVERMORE FALLS – The town manager says he’s frustrated that residents in this town won’t get to decide for themselves whether they’d like to withdraw from Androscoggin County and join Franklin County.
“They’re not going to let us vote,” Town Manager Alan Gove said Tuesday. “It’s frustrating. Somebody else has decided it. Livermore Falls people are not going to get to vote.”
A legislative committee voted 6-3 Friday against an amended version of the enabling bill, L.D. 1316, which would have let Androscoggin County residents vote on the county switch along with Livermore Falls and Franklin County residents. By Tuesday, the remaining members of the committee had cast their ballots, and the final vote was 9-4 in favor of “ought not to pass,” Rep. Chris Barstow, D-Gorham, chairman of the State and Local Government Committee, said Tuesday. Barstow voted with the majority.
The bill will still go to the House and Senate floors, he said, but with a 9-4 committee report, Barstow doubts it will pass. If the Legislature did pass the bill, each town would be responsible for the cost of the election.
“The main reason I believe the majority of the committee voted ought not to pass’ on the bill, is mainly because of the indifference between Livermore Falls, Androscoggin County and Androscoggin County communities,” Barstow said. “It seemed to us as though there was no communications between the town and the other parties, regarding their intent to secede and be annexed by Franklin County. Personally, before I would support this type of vote, as the bill specified, I would at least like to see some communication between the parties involved. Once this happens, I would be more likely to support future legislation enabling this type of vote and action.”
If the bill is rejected by legislators, Barstow said, it could be brought back up again in two years.
Gove said Tuesday that he did have conversations with Androscoggin County commissioners about the proposal and also sent a letter to the county commission.
In November, more than 800 Livermore Falls residents voted in a straw poll to pursue a feasibility study on the benefits of changing counties. The study showed that the switch to Franklin County would benefit Livermore Falls residents in both convenience and tax assessments.
The real losers, Gove said, are the residents of the town. Livermore Falls is closer to the Franklin County seat of Farmington than it is to Androscoggin County’s seat of Auburn.
“It’s too bad; it should have passed,” selectmen Chairman Ken Jacques said. “I guess they won’t give us the opportunity to decide for ourselves. We’ll move on.”
Rep. Janet Mills, D-Farmington, sponsor of the bill, said in an e-mail that the committee gave “us a fair hearing.” A public hearing on L.D. 1316 was held April 4 in Augusta.
Several of the legislative committee members, Mills said, “were concerned that without a much more cogent and demonstrable economic motive, allowing the town of Livermore Falls to proceed in this manner might encourage other towns to follow suit, thus starting us down a slippery slope’ of towns wanting to leave their counties,” Mills said. “I pointed out that there were plenty of precedents and that this was a perfectly acceptable procedure.”
Mills also asked to extend the time for the votes to be taken to allow people to gather all appropriate information.
As a resident of Franklin County, Mills said that she told the committee she didn’t know which way she’d vote, but she wanted the discussion to proceed.
“Some committee members would have preferred to carry the bill over to the next legislative session, and I felt that the committee was leaving the door open for this bill to be resubmitted another year to make a stronger showing of support and economic necessity,” she said.
Androscoggin County Commissioner Elmer Berry of Greene said his county wasn’t in favor of Livermore Falls changing counties.
He put together a data sheet and gave it to the legislative committee April 4, which covered Registry of Deeds, land values and the emergency management agency, he said.
If Livermore Falls seceded from Androscoggin County, the taxes of the other towns would rise, with Auburn, Lewiston, Poland and Lisbon affected the most, he said.
Lawyers also noted, Berry said, it would be a nightmare to have to research deeds in two counties, although Livermore Falls has switched counties previously.
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