AUBURN — County commissioners have until January to find a better way to pay for emergency dispatch services, Auburn City Councilors voted Monday.

Councilors adopted a resolve at their regular meeting calling for an end of Lewiston and Auburn subsidies for county dispatch.

Both cities pay $968,347 annually to operate their own emergency dispatch service, L-A 911.

The cities also pay taxes to the county — $2.3 million for Lewiston and $1.9 million for Auburn in the current year — and a good portion of that goes to pay for the county’s emergency dispatch service.

“Based on the decision the County commissioners make, if the cities of Auburn and Lewiston are still paying for services they don’t receive, we will seek action to cease paying those services,” police Chief Phil Crowell said.

Councilors were enthusiastic in their support.

“This resolution says everything that needs to be said with respect to financial efficiency — and that tends to be where this debate always goes,” Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said. “What we miss is the potential value to public safety in the county. The real heart of this matter is that we need to make sure people get help when they make one call.”

Lewiston’s City Council is scheduled to vote on an identical resolve at their meeting Tuesday. That meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Lewiston City Hall.

Crowell said L-A 911 is working on a new proposal to take over the bulk of dispatch for Androscoggin County.

“Now that we have the councils on board, we should be able to move fairly quickly with a new plan,” Crowell said.

Crowell said details of that plan could be ready for public review by the end of the week.

“We’ve worked on making one last proposal to offer to the county, one last and best offer proposed to bring everyone under one roof that’s affordable to everyone and contains Lewiston and Auburn’s costs,” Crowell said.

That proposal will be mailed to the other communities in Androscoggin County and should include an estimate of costs each would pay for service through L-A 911, Crowell said.

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