FARMINGTON — More than 30 people attended a public hearing Monday night on a proposed Franklin County budget of about $5.3 million for 2012-13.

The Budget Committee will vote on the spending plan at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 7, in Franklin County Superior Court. Chairman John Calloway, a selectman from Avon, said no public comments will be accepted at that time, unless the committee requests more information.

Many of those in attendance at the hearing came in support of program grant requests and proposed funding. The request this year totaled $292,693 from 12 agencies. Both the Budget Committee and Franklin County commissioners are recommending $259,193 for program grants.

Of the agency requests, only two have been reduced. Tri-County Mental Health requested $35,000 and the commissioners and committee are recommending $20,000. Western Maine Community Action requested $49,500 and recommended funding is $33,000. No one asked questions of the mental health agency’s decrease at the hearing. The $20,000 is what the agency was funded in 2011-12.

WMCA representatives did take issue with its proposed $16,000 reduction from its request. The agency was funded at $40,000 in 2011-12 and $49,500 in 2010-11. For about 25 years, it was funded at $33,000, according to Monday night’s discussion.

The Western Maine agency serves all of Franklin County and many of its social service programs, including weatherization, energy assistance and repairs, focus on trying to help keep elder generations in their homes and helping low-income families, Executive Director Fen Fowler said.

The money the county provides to the agency allows representatives to get matching funds. The $49,500 would bring in more than $180,000, Fowler said.

Some discussion centered on whether the agency is trying to move people they serve out of poverty, or “subsidizing poverty” as Calloway said.

When you have a decade going by and you have the same families needing help, you are not getting people out of poverty, he said, which was the initial objective of the agency. He questioned the amounts the agency spends on programs such as weatherization.

Agency Program Director Bill Crandall said Western Maine cannot reweatherize a house that was done after September 1994.

Crandall said the agency has been able to weatherize and rehab 250 homes in Franklin County, which produced a savings of roughly $1,000 a year in heating costs, or roughly 300 gallons of fuel per year per household.

“We get about $7 to $8 back for every $1 the county invests in the program,” he said.

He said what the CAP agency does in weatherization and home repair brings a lot of economic value to the county. The agency administers, at no cost, Farmington and Jay groups’ heating assistance funds that are raised through donations, he said.

Budget Committee member Cary Keep, a selectman in Rangeley Plantation, said the committee has been trying to keep level-funding to the grant programs.

The Western Maine agency has received cuts in funding in other areas as well, Fowler said.

“We don’t think the gift to (WMCA) is a handout, it is an investment,” Fowler said.

Calloway said the agency was doing great things and they were doing it with taxpayers’ money.

He was more in favor of spending money to train people.

Business representatives and consumers of the services, including the CareerCenter, spoke in favor of the agency and its services. It was also pointed out Maine residents are getting older and as they age, they need heat, business representative Josh Wojcik said.

The agency’s fuel-assistance Program Director Danielle Bell said that of the people they serve, 40 percent are “senior citizens,” and most of them are on Social Security. Of that percentage, 80 percent own their homes and are taxpayers, Bell said.

Budget Committee member Steve Bunker, a Farmington selectman, spoke in favor of supporting the agency.

In other business, Jay resident Tammy Dwinal-Shufelt asked the Budget Committee why the three county commissioners will receive a stipend of between $8,100 and $8,500 in the next fiscal year when town selectmen receive much less.

She also questioned why the commissioners get $757 a month that goes into flex accounts that can be used for health insurance benefits or retirement plans.

County Clerk Julie Magoon said commissioners voted to do so.

Budget Committee member Terry Bran, a Wilton selectman, said he thinks commissioners should be paid a salary like selectmen and not get benefits.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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