AUBURN — A last-minute attempt to delay charging dispatching fees to 12 Androscoggin County towns — while easing taxes in Lewiston and Auburn — failed Wednesday.

In an 8-1 vote, the county’s Budget Committee sided with the County Commission, arguing that too much time and debate had already been spent on a measure that has drawn measured support among all 12 towns.

“We’ve dealt with this for years,” said Jeffrey Timberlake of Turner. “I’m really hoping that we move forward with a plan that we’ve worked diligently on here, folks, for a long time, up and down, and we don’t throw one more screw in the can and see if we can mess it up.”

The delay was proposed by Lewiston Deputy City Administrator Phil Nadeau, who joined the nine-member committee last month following the resignation of Helen Poulin.

The whole fee schedule — slated to begin on Jan. 1 — ought to be put on pause for a new examination of county dispatching, Nadeau said. Too little work has been done to define the exact cost of answering calls for help and dispatching small-town emergencies.

Explanations for the fees were too broad and unsubstantiated, he said. Had Lewiston done such work on its storm-water fees, that measure would never have passed or survived legal challenges.

“We would have been hung out on a rail,” Nadeau said.

County Commissioner Elaine Makas, who represents Lewiston on the County Commission, insisted that the fee work was done carefully and honestly.

Much of the work has been aimed at relieving the dispatching burden on Lewiston and Auburn, which argue that they should not pay for dispatching to municipalities since the cities have their own dispatch center.

The County Commission fees call for per-capita charges to the towns: $2 per person in the community for answering the calls, $6.15 per person for dispatching a town police department and $2.50 per person for dispatching rescue and fire services.

Currently, the only dispatching fees assessed by the county have been for fire dispatching on a per-call bases.

Over the past three years, the county has raised about $44,000 each year, County Commissioner Elaine Makas said. The new fees would raise that revenue to almost $176,000, money that would not have to be raised by the county tax levy.

In Auburn, the savings would be about $32,000. In Lewiston, the number would be almost $38,000. The figures could be revised in 2013, said Makas, who did many of the calculations herself.

She feels her math is solid and so is the plan, she said.

“I’m very happy because this has been going on and on and on,” Makas said. “We are part-time employees of the county, and we haven’t been able to do a lot of other stuff.”

The matter may not be settled, yet.

The Budget Committee has scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 19 to hear comments on the entire county budget. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the law library of the county building in Auburn.

Nadeau said he was unsure what, if anything, the cities would do on the matter.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” he said.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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