PARIS — The Oxford County Commission agreed to terms of a new contract Tuesday with Workgroup Technology Partners, or WG Tech, to provide managed service for the IT infrastructure needs of the Sheriff’s Office.
WG Tech, located in Westbrook, provides a similar service for county administration for $3,455 per month. Adding service for the Sheriff’s Office patrol, county jail and dispatch departments increases the monthly fee by $3,175, to $6,630.
The contract is for 36 months and includes a one-time startup fee of $1,925.
Funds will be covered by the administrative account for the rest of the fiscal year. The $3,175 will then be divided by the three departments under the sheriff.
Commissioners approved contracts for the county to provide school resource officers to Buckfield in Regional School Union 10 and Regional School Union 55 in Hiram, which includes Baldwin, Cornish, Parsonsfield and Porter. RSU 55 would use two school resource officers while Buckfield is requesting one. The contract covers the school year, or 177 days.
Sheriff Christopher Wainwright said calls for service keep trending up. The volume is up more than 20% from a year ago. He said his department is especially seeing more domestic and mental illness calls. The complexity of the calls have also increased, with many incidents requiring more time with more deputies.
“That’s how life is now, unfortunately,” Wainwright said.
Wainwright is hoping to hire at least one new deputy and expects upcoming vacancies due to military service and losing one temporarily to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
The county is still waiting to receive its initial funding from the state to cover the county jails. If the county receives the same amount as last year, jail Administrator Dana Dillingham said the county would likely need less money than it received last year in the state’s supplemental appropriations.
Commissioners agreed to appropriate up to $1,000 for the sheriff to get legal counsel for a pair of grievance hearings.
County Treasurer Beth Calhoun said finances are in good shape with 47% of the budget spent at the midpoint of 2020. She said town payments for county taxes are starting to arrive. She added that Peru was considering not paying its share of the county tax. Should that happen, the county could place liens on every property in Peru, she said.
In other business, Amanda Lantagne was promoted from corrections corporal to sergeant.
Register of Probate Jennifer Dilworth discussed the department heads’ desire for an employee break room. Commissioners gave the plan their blessing.
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