LIVERMORE – The town plans to stick with the Androscoggin County’s Sheriff’s Department to provide dispatching services for the Fire Department and answering 911 calls.

Selectpersons voted unanimously to do so Monday, board administrative assistant Kurt Schaub said Wednesday.

The town faces a cost of $9,427.50 per year under the new fee structure. The cost for dispatching the town’s Fire Department is $2.50 per capita, which equals $5,237.50, Schaub said.

The cost for the agency to dispatch 911 calls and use of the public safety answering point is $2 per capita, he said. The cost for that service is $4,190.

The town has 2,095 residents.

Livermore will not have to pay for law enforcement dispatch, however. The town is covered under the county’s rural patrol because it doesn’t have a police department, Schaub said.

Currently, the town pays the agency to dispatch the Fire Department on a per-hour basis. During the 2011-12 year, the town’s cost for that service was about $2,600. It all depends on how busy firefighters are, he said.

Schaub said he met with fire Chief Donald Castonguay and Assistant Chief Andrew Berry to discuss the matter prior to selectpersons voting on the fees.

Both agreed it would be best to maintain service with the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department, despite the increased cost, he said.

“Quality of service is the basis for that recommendation, along with general acknowledgment that service tends to deteriorate with geographic distance,” Schaub said.

There is a concern over whether or not enough communities will support the new arrangement for it to be feasible, not to mention acceptable to the county Budget Committee, Schaub said. “If not enough support it, then it would be in the town’s best interest to have a solid Plan B.”

Schaub said he discussed the matter with Androscoggin County Sheriff Guy Desjardins.

Desjardins, according to Schaub, seems reasonably confident that he’ll have enough participation on the dispatch for the new arrangement to make financial sense.

He also suggested that the Public Utilities Commission would step in if county public safety answering point arrangements became too fragmented, he said.

The PUC oversees public safety answering point operations and distributes the funds collected via phone bills.

Thus, a vote to continue dispatch and the public safety answering point with Androscoggin County was recommended. An alternative plan will also be developed, Schaub said.

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