FARMINGTON — Franklin County Treasurer Mary Frank told county commissioners on Tuesday that there is documentation that shows the town of Strong was paid by the county for fire protection service in 2004-05 and 2005-06 for the Unorganized Territory.

Strong Selectman Rupert Pratt appeared at the April 3 Franklin County commissioners’ meeting to discuss some town officials’ belief that the county missed a payment for 2005 for fire service protection under the Unorganized Territory budget. County commissioners administer the UT budget and the county government budget.

The town was paid $4,500 in December 2004 and $4,500 in 2006 for fire protection of West Freeman Township, she said. The 2004 payment was for July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005, and the 2006 payment was for July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006, she said.

Initially, town officials thought $6,500 was owed, but that is what is being paid now, Frank said. She did not attend the April 3 meeting. Frank said the information was found in QuickBooks and the warrant jacket had the town’s request for the payment for services attached to it.

“We got the requests and we paid them all,” she said.

Strong officials are being asked to bring in the town audits to make sure that all the documentation the county and town have matches up, she said. County Clerk Julie Magoon said she did speak to an Unorganized Territory fiscal administrator at the state level and there is a mechanism in place to pay a town a back payment if that is ever the case.

In the future, Magoon said the county could have a payment schedule printed on the contracts with the towns that provide services to the UT.

In other business, commissioners gave approval to Mark Beauregard to let him come within 50 feet of the county’s right-of-way on a county road to extract gravel from his property on the Reed’s Mill Road, also known as Dingle Road on a portion of it, in Madrid Township.

Beauregard said he would need to get a permit from the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission to extract the gravel prior to doing the work. He also said he would be interested in straightening out a narrow portion of the county’s road when he is doing the work at his own expense.

Any road work would have to be done by contract agreement with the county, which would include providing proof of insurance, and doing the work under the direction of county Road Agent Jerry Haines, commissioners agreed.

dperry@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link