LIVERMORE FALLS – Police Chief Ernest Steward said Tuesday that every full-time officer has volunteered to work without pay when the town “shuts down” on July 1, but without insurance they will not be allowed to.
Voters did not approve some department budgets at the annual town meeting last week, halting all spending as of the close of this fiscal year June 30.
Because the town has yet to decide on a new insurance provider, Steward said he can’t even be sure which insurance company to speak to about the matter. Two companies the town has received bids from have told him they think they’ll be able to provide coverage after July 1. Selectmen plan to award the contract for 2006-2007 coverage at Monday’s meeting, Steward said. “I think we’ll be all set,” he said.
Steward said he has a contingency plan worked out with Androscoggin County in case the insurance company selectmen decide on will not provide coverage for Livermore Falls officers. Full-time officers from Livermore Falls will probably have to be hired and deputized by the county temporarily, and then they will cover the town as part of the Sheriff’s Department, Steward said.
“We definitely won’t leave them high and dry,” Sheriff’s Department Capt. Raymond LaFrance said Tuesday. “We have a contingency plan in place in case, come July 1,” Livermore Falls officers are uninsured.
By state statute the county must provide coverage to towns without a police force, LaFrance said, but the Sheriff’s Department also is in a budget crunch, and has no officers to spare.
“Temporarily, we would probably have to add additional patrols to the county and we’ll have to handle the calls in Livermore Falls,” he said. But, he added, “we don’t have the resources to replace” the town’s force, and county officers will not be stationed in town like town officers are now.
“It’s not going to be business as usual,” LaFrance said, but neither the county nor the state will “leave the town in the lurch.”
Town dispatcher Amanda Leclerc said, if possible, the dispatch will stay open.
Even if town officers get the OK to work without pay in town, Steward said, coverage will probably be lighter than usual, and reserve officers might not work at all. His officers “just want to do their jobs,” Steward said, but without being able to pay his people, the chief is recommending the Fourth of July parade be canceled.
“I can’t provide reserves for the … parade,” he said. “My people are going to be working 12-hour shifts for nothing. We want to provide what we can for the safety of the people, but we do not need to stretch our resources out too far,” he said.
“I don’t even know where we’re going to get gas for the cruisers,” he added.
Fred Nadeau, who manages the transfer station, said Wednesday that he plans to remain open. “It has been my responsibility to open on scheduled days for more than 10 years, and until I’m given written notice not to do that, I will continue to,” he said.
But town office representative Dawn Young said the office will be closed June 30 at noon to end the fiscal year, and then be closed “indefinitely” from July 1 forward.
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