LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen on Monday tabled action on a request by Androscoggin County commissioners to pay $5,500 to cover the cost of additional dispatchers from Nov. 23 to Dec. 31.

Livermore Falls Police Dispatch Center is closing Nov. 23 and the county will take over dispatching for them.

Androscoggin County Commissioner Randall Greenwood told selectmen last year’s county commissioners had not included enough money in the 2009 budget to handle Livermore Falls dispatch this year. The budget year ends Dec. 31. The total shortfall for the county to cover the additional police emergency calls is $7,322.14, Greenwood said.
He asked selectmen to help bridge the gap.

The county’s 2010 budget will include money to cover the town’s police dispatching for the next year, Greenwood said.
The former commissioners had budgeted to dispatch for a set number of communities based on historic call volumes, he said.

“The move by Livermore Falls to close its dispatch center before the end of our fiscal year creates a financial burden not originally budgeted for,” Greenwood said.

Residents in Livermore Falls voted in September to close the dispatch center in an attempt to reduce expenses while facing an increased tax burden due to the paper mill closing and lower anticipated revenue, among other factors.

Initially commissioners thought the Livermore Falls closing would be closer to the end of the year, Greenwood said.

“Androscoggin County, by practice, has contracted to provide dispatching for fire/rescue and provided law enforcement dispatch as part of the county tax levy,” Greenwood said. “To ensure the county can close its fiscal year out without unreasonably subsidizing a service it did not budget for, we would request Livermore Falls pay the percent of our communications budget tied to their percent of total calls projected, based on historical data. This allows the county to absorb some of the increase but also begins to set a precedent by which we might eventually bring in Lisbon and or Lewiston, Auburn, should we need to make that type of transition during a fiscal year,” Greenwood said.

This would be a one-time contribution to operations, beyond the fire dispatch contract, he said.

According to information Greenwood presented, the Androscoggin County Communications Center handled 20,589 calls in 2008. Of that amount, about 1,100 of the 911 calls were transferred to Livermore Falls dispatch. Using a formula that includes Livermore Falls dispatch overall call volume for one year, 6,285 calls, Livermore Falls would be responsible for $5,500 during the five-week period and the county would absorb $1,822.14 of the increased costs, Greenwood said. That money would cover two part-time employees for 16 hours a day and four additional weekend shifts.

Livermore Falls Town Manager Jim Chaousis said if the town was to operate its service during that period, it would cost $13,500.

Resident Ron Chadwick suggested that the county must have contingency funds to cover unexpected expenses.

“Livermore Falls has always paid its fair share of taxes,” Chadwick said, and got little for it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, after all those years of paying taxes, he said.

Selectman Jackie Knight also took issue with the $5,500, saying it was more than other towns pay.

“I don’t understand why we have to pay, when its something we have paid for,” she said.

Selectmen asked Greenwood to go back to commissioners to see if the county could absorb those costs and come back to the next meeting.

When Jay voters elected to close its dispatch center a couple of years ago in the middle of Franklin County‘s fiscal year, it didn’t cost that town anything for Franklin County to take over those services, Jay Town Manager Ruth Marden said prior to the meeting.

Franklin County Sheriff Dennis Pike said after the meeting, each county is its own identity. The reason Jay didn’t have to pay anything, he said, is because they pay county taxes.

“As far as I am concerned here in Franklin County, it is pretty basically our responsibility and we’ll certainly answer that call and provide the necessary services,” Pike said.

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