MINOT – Selectmen cited cost as the reason they oppose a single emergency dispatch center serving all Androscoggin County cities and towns.

“It’s just (Auburn and Lewiston) finding a way to save money on the backs of small towns,” Selectman Dean Campbell said.

The board voted Monday to have Selectman Steve French cast Minot’s vote in opposition to the single emergency dispatch center when the matter comes up at Wednesday night’s county Public Service Answering Point committee meeting.

French abstained from voting Monday because he is co-chairman, with Lewiston City Administrator James Bennett, of the Androscoggin PSAP committee and was in the delicate position of having to present the proposal for a single emergency dispatch center.

French said he understood the town’s position “loud and clear” and would convey it to the PSAP committee.

He noted that the committee had not settled on a funding formula – costs could be divvied up according to population, property valuation or the number of emergency calls, or any combination and relative weighting of the three factors.

“I like calls for service myself, but no matter which way we go, it will be expensive for us,” French said.

Reports of estimates for what a single dispatch center would cost Minot, and all of the towns, have fluctuated wildly.

Minot now contracts with the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department for dispatch services, on a per-call basis, for about $2,000 per year.

French said the minimum the single dispatch center would cost Minot would be about $16,000 annually – with other estimates showing it could cost Minot $67,300 per year.

On the other hand, the cities of Auburn and Lewiston, according to the report on a single PSAP center, could see their dispatch costs go down by about $300,000.

“Let the cities do what they want to do and the towns can upgrade the sheriff’s dispatch. We’re very happy with the county. Why would we want to do anything else?” Campbell said.

In other business, selectmen accepted for review a state highway department plan to install a blinking light at the intersection of Woodman Hill Road (Route 119) and Center Minot Hill Road, at a cost of $19,000, with the town to pay 20 percent plus operation and maintenance costs. The board’s initial reaction was that it is a state road and the state should bear all costs.