FARMINGTON – Franklin County commissioners Tuesday refused to reconsider the amount the county will pay Kingfield to provide fire service to sections of Freeman Township in 2005-2006.
Kingfield Board of Selectmen Chairman John Dill and Selectman Neal McCurdy requested that the initial amount of $5,500, which was discussed during budget talks, be reinstated.
Commissioners changed the amount for the Kingfield contract to $1,500 after Unorganized Territory Fiscal Administrator Doreen Sheive recommended that amount and the contract, commissioners said. Sheive was out of her office Tuesday and unavailable to comment.
Dill said selectmen should have been notified earlier about a reduction of 80 percent in the proposed contract.
The unorganized territory budget runs from July 1 to June 30, 2006 but commissioners approve it in December with the county budget.
Dill said the $5,500 was confirmed by county officials and that Kingfield selectmen had factored the $5,500 into the town’s budget. Voters in Kingfield approved the town’s 2005 spending proposal in early March.
Kingfield selectmen received a memo dated March 24 with the county’s proposed 2005-06 contract. The contract, which is still unsigned by Kingfield selectmen, was for $1,500 and will be considered at the selectmen’s next meeting, Dill said.
Kingfield has Mount Abram High School in Salem Township to look after, Dill said, and the town is not interested in being the primary responder to Freeman Ridge and Foster Hill, if the county is going to pay only $1,500.
McGrane said the county invested a lot of money into the Salem Fire Department when it was incorporated with the understanding that it would be the primary responder in Salem and there would be a reduction of funding to Kingfield. That is where mutual aid comes in, McGrane said. He also added that Kingfield would have time to make adjustments in its spending.
Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon said he had reservations about paying the full amount that the county has been paying to Kingfield for the last several years but would be willing to negotiate.
The Salem department, which is a volunteer operation like Kingfield, has a few firefighters available during weekdays, Commissioner Meldon Gilmore of Freeman Township said.
“You can’t fight a fire with two or three people,” Gilmore said.
“I apologize if we led you guys to believe you would get $5,500 forevermore,” Hardy said to Dill and McCurdy.
Dill said they would leave the issue for the commissioners to deliberate on. He also noted that the town’s fire department expenses were not getting any less.
After the men left, McGrane said he didn’t feel any obligation to reopen the contract negotiations. They knew this was going to happen, he said.
“I’m sure they’ll survive it,” he said.
Gilmore said he wouldn’t be so sure.
When he voted for the contract, Gilmore said, he hadn’t thought about Kingfield counting on the $5,500 and then not getting it.
Magoon said Kingfield would receive the remainder of $5,500 owed for 2004-05 and then they’d receive $1,500 for the next year’s contract, which is $1,250 short of what Kingfield received in the past for the first half of the contract.
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