LIVERMORE FALLS – Town Manager Alan Gove said Monday he will recommend that two shifts of the police dispatch service be done by Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department and that fire and ambulance calls be handled by Jay Police Department.
Selectmen have the authority to make decisions on dispatch without a town vote.
Town employees researched the authority after a selectmen’s meeting earlier this month and couldn’t find a vote by town meeting creating the dispatch operation, Gove advised selectmen in a memo.
The police chief’s helper/dispatcher can do police dispatch on the weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m, Gove wrote in an agenda memo to the board.
“This should save over $100,000 in our budget,” Gove wrote, “although I have not worked out the exact figure until we know what you folks think is best.”
Selectmen plan to discuss the issue at today’s meeting in the Municipal Building courtroom. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
Police Chief Ernest Steward Jr. said Monday that he’d been putting figures together for four years and has done it again to take the figures to the selectmen’s meeting today. Selectmen have considered reducing dispatch operations funded locally, as well as eliminating it and the Police Department over the last few years.
A committee studied dispatch in 2003 and reported its findings to selectmen. At that time, the selectmen voted to keep the dispatch operation in Livermore Falls.
Steward said the town manager had not told him of his recommendation to selectmen. Steward said he was under the impression he was meeting with selectmen Tuesday to discuss the costs and proposals.
Jay Police Chief Larry White Sr. said Monday that his figures he submitted previously to Livermore Falls were $3,500 to handle Fire Department calls and he wouldn’t charge for his dispatchers to handle emergency calls for Community Emergency Services.
“We feel it’s an important contribution to the community,” White said of the ambulance service.
Jay’s dispatchers are emergency medical certified, he added. Livermore Falls does not charge the ambulance service for handling emergency calls.
Comments are no longer available on this story