LIVERMORE FALLS — A selectman told fellow board members on Monday that a request for proposal for contracted police service is being developed.

Selectman Alphonso Barker is chairing a committee that is seeking a contract figure from the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department to provide police coverage to the town.

Voters approved a measure in June to allow selectmen to investigate alternate costs of police services. The initiative is to find out if another agency could provide the service for less money than the town’s police force.

Barker said the committee is working with Androscoggin County commissioners to put together the first request for proposal. He expects a draft of the request for manpower costs to be ready for the select board to review at its next meeting.

There will be two or three requests needed to tie up loose ends, Barker said.

Selectman Ken Pelletier asked how long it would take for the board to know how much the county services would cost?

He doesn’t want to see the town’s officers leave their jobs for other positions, he said, before the board even knows if it would be more efficient to go with the county.

“I just don’t want to see it go away,” Pelletier said, of the department.

Barker said he is hoping to have the process completed within six weeks.

Budget discussions need to get under way with a final budget due in late April to go to referendum in June.

They are making progress as quickly and prudently as possible, Barker said.

The town already has a copy of the contract the county has with Poland for police services, Flagg said. She asked why they couldn’t use that to figure out the costs to speed up the process.

Chief Steward previously said he used the Poland contract to figure out what the county cost would be for Livermore Falls for the 24/7 coverage. He found that it was more than the town currently pays, Steward had said.

Poland’s contract is for 16 hours of coverage a day and Livermore Falls is asking for 24/7coverage, Barker said.

A few residents spoke up during open session in favor of keeping the current force local.

“We need to keep our departments,” Val Nichols said. He came to the meeting to voice his opinion on the matter, he said.

Voters already turned the dispatch service over to the county, he said, and he believes it should have stayed local.

Selectman Louise Chabot said she has kept quiet on the issue to remain objective until the figures come in but knows the town needs to keep its departments.

“What we need to do is look and see if there is a cost savings,” Chairman Bill Demaray said.

“The point is you’re not saving money if you are cutting services,” Nichols said. Somebody needs to step up and say they are doing a good job, he said.

Selectmen gave police Lt. Thomas Gould permission to develop a two-week schedule to determine how full-coverage can be provided since another officer is expected to leave soon. The six-man department is already down to five and that would leave four officers, he said, along with reserves.

The schedule would be to accommodate each loss of officer.

“I love the town of Livermore Falls but I also need to feed myself,” Gould, a veteran of the department, said.

The person who is leaving doesn’t want to go but he has a family,” Gould said.

The board may need to decide to ask Androscoggin County sheriff’s deputies to come up and patrol in the event there is no one to cover shifts or if the board wants those shifts to remain unfilled, Gould said. The board also needs to find out if the county would charge a fee to patrol, he said.

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