Sending Lisbon’s 911 calls through Androscoggin County Sheriff’s dispatchers rather than Lewiston-Auburn will save $5,000 per year, according to Lisbon police Chief David Brooks.

“We have fewer than 10 911 calls per day, and Lewiston-Auburn 911 was going to charge us $5,000 to do that,” Brooks said. “The county is willing to do it for no charge, so that’s the way we decided to go.”

Brooks doesn’t know when the change will be made. When it does, Lisbon residents’ calls to 911 will be routed through the county’s Auburn call center.

“They’ll determine that it is indeed a Lisbon call and divert it back to a Lisbon dispatcher,” Brooks said. The process could add a few seconds to answering 911 calls, he said.

“But it’s seconds, not minutes,” he said. “Any delay will be slight.”

The state reimburses 911 call centers for the cost of equipment. Androscoggin County has three centers – Lisbon, Lewiston-Auburn and the Sheriff’s Department.

The state began reducing call centers statewide in 2004, requiring areas to combine 911 services. In Androscoggin County, the state has agreed to pay for two 911 dispatch centers. Lisbon agreed to combine its centers with one of the others.

But Brooks said Lisbon will continue running its own dispatch center.

“We get hundreds of other calls every day, from serious emergencies to the cat-in-a-tree kind of thing,” he said. “Those will continue coming through here, and the 911 calls will be routed back to us.”

The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department also takes emergency 911 calls for most of the county and dispatches for the Sheriff’s Department; the Mechanic Falls and Sabattus police departments; and the Poland, Minot, Turner and Greene fire departments.

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