AUBURN — The scheduled public hearing on the 2025 Androscoggin County budget ground to a halt Wednesday when an audience member stood up and asked if a copy of the budget was available for the public.

John Talbot of Durham added that he could not find a copy of the budget on the county website. He wondered how the county could hold a public hearing when the public had no access to that budget.

Quickly realizing their error, the Androscoggin County Commission postponed the public hearing until Sept. 25 to give officials time to post the preliminary budget to the county website.

That delay also pushes the first county Budget Committee meeting out one week until Oct. 2.

The preliminary budget was mailed out to all the county municipalities, but was never posted to the county website.

“We need public comment before we make changes to the budget,” Commissioner Andrew Lewis of Auburn said.

Officials apologized to Talbot and others in attendance for the oversight.

Commissioners were prepared for a difficult session cutting the county budget. With no additional state funding expected to help fund the jail, the county is looking at a potential $1 million funding deficit. Some of that is due to overcrowding. Rated by the state to house a maximum 160 inmates, headcounts have risen during the past several months to well over 200, forcing the county to pay to board inmates at other facilities.

The overcrowding also prevents the county from accepting federal inmates, which is a source of revenue for the county.

To address the sizable budget shortfall, commissioners will likely make cuts to other parts of the budget.

“Every single department will need to make sacrifices to cover the jail,” commission Chairperson Sally Christner of Turner said.

She added that the jail budget is already stretched thin and has few if any areas to cut.

In other business, commissioners awarded American Rescue Plan Act funds to a handful of nonprofits.

Literacy Volunteers received its request of $18,500. The Franco Center, which had earlier received $500,000, was awarded an additional $350,000. The town of Greene, despite voting against paying a portion of the money required to increase broadband access, will receive $285,000 for that purpose. Commissioners were split on that expenditure, voting 5-2, with Christner and Commissioner Garret Mason of Lisbon opposing the request.

“Doing this is the right thing to do,” Lewis said about funding the entire broadband request.