MECHANIC FALLS — The Town Council Monday voted to accept the proposed terms for having the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office provide emergency dispatch services to the town.

According to the proposal, Mechanic Falls would be charged a total of $32,280 for the Sheriff’s Office to provide police dispatch, serve as the town’s public safety answering point, handling its 911 calls and provide fire and emergency dispatch.

The proposed terms are based on formulas whereby the town will be charged $2.50 per capita for fire and emergency dispatch services, $2 per capita for handling 911 calls, and $6.50 per capita for providing police dispatch.

Council member Nancy Richard wondered how the per capita charges were determined and whether they provided proper funding for operating the services.

“Are we going to get three quarters through the year and suddenly hear they have run out of money?” Richard asked.

Town Manager John Hawley said the the agreement committed both the town and the county for the full year at the fixed amount and if the county found itself with problems, it would have to find the money elsewhere.

County commissioners had sent the Council a letter requesting that the board let them know by Nov. 21 whether the town wanted to continue having the Sheriff’s Office provide the services.

In agreeing to terms, the Council noted that the contract would be for the year 2013 only and asked Hawley, in his letter to county commissioners, to request a ceiling for how much future contracts might be increased.

In other business, the Council agreed to adopt rules of order for how it conducted business.

Hawley said he had asked Town Clerk Laurel Nadeau to research whether the Council had adopted anything more than an agreement to follow Roberts Rules of Order and as her search came up empty, he had pulled together some formal rules and procedures, based on how the Council actually operates.

“We haven’t had any problems here, but when you hear of other communities that have chaotic selectmen/council meetings, it would be good to have something to fall back on,” Hawley said.

The Council also agreed to postpone indefinitely the Public Works agreement with the town of Poland that Hawley and Poland’s former town manager, Rosemary Kulow, had been working on.

Hawley also reported that the effects of Hurricane Sandy locally were minimal.

“We did incur some additional expense for emergency personnel on standby but damages were very minimal and taken care of the next day,” Hawley said.

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