Livermore Falls selectmen voted on Tuesday, Sept. 17, to update the fire department’s billing policy. Value of fire trucks and each staff member will be determined to use when billing nuisance calls. File photo/Livermore Falls Advertiser

LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen on Tuesday, Sept. 17, voted to have the Fire Department’s billing policy for fire services revised.

Fire Chief Nathan Guptill said he had talked with Town Manager Carrie Castonguay and Chairman William Kenniston about it. “Just trying to put some feelers out,” he noted. “In Turner I set this up with Central Maine Cost Recovery LLC [in Fairfield]. My goal is to be able to start billing for these nuisance calls, essentially OUI. Somebody drives through town and takes out a telephone pole and we are sitting there waiting four to five hours for Central Maine Power to come fix the pole and that type of stuff.”

Covering those calls comes out of the Fire Department’s budget, Guptill said. “It’s costing the town to pay for the Fire Department to sit out there and block Park Street or wherever because we don’t have anybody else to do it,” he noted. “I would like to be able to set up this billing ordinance.”

Guptill said he helped get one going again when he was chief in Turner. “Carrie has called around to other departments, other towns and collected their ordinances to look at so we can make one that fits this town,” he stated. “My goal is to be able to start billing these calls to offset the budget.”

If selectmen approved, Guptill said he would like to see moneys collected go into the department’s reserve account.

After every call, a report from dispatch is emailed to Guptill. The value per hour for each truck and person in the department would be determined for billing purposes, he said. “A bill would be sent to Joe Public’s insurance company. They were driving drunk and blew through a telephone pole, needed five hours directing traffic.”

Guptill shared another recent frequent occurrence where tenants falls asleep or pass out while cooking which causes the smoke alarm to go off in the apartment. “There’s never been a fire there,” he said. “Our Fire Department goes, resets the alarm. I would like to be able to bill these people for that call because every time we get called out for that they put Jay, Livermore on standby to be able to roll in case there is actually a fire. They are wasting all these resources because they can’t seem to stay awake and cook dinner.”

Selectman Bruce Peary asked if the insurance company pays.

“Lots of insurance companies actually pay and a lot more towns are doing this now,” Guptill replied. “Central Maine Cost Recovery takes like 10%. With a $1,000 bill they will take 100 bucks and send us a check for $900. It is essentially free money for the town.”

“It’s money that you have earned by being on the site,” Peary said.

“Correct,” Guptill stated. “Now we are not billing for this. It will offset the cost of the budget in the long run.”

“The town does have a policy on billing for fire services that was approved in 2003,” Castonguay noted. “We talked with Nathan and the officers about updating this policy to be current and put some language in it. What we are asking you to decide is how you want the billing mechanism. Do you want to use a third party agency or do you want it to come through the town?”

“This would be a modification of the policy we could do ourselves,” Selectman Jim Long said. “I would suggest a third party to begin, make it easier for ourselves and for the department if that is okay.”

‘There are quite a few of these third party companies out there who would do this for us,” Guptill said. “I have used Central Maine Cost Recovery in Turner. If there was an accident they would get the police report from whoever is handling the call – whether it would be our police department, Androscoggin County. They will pay for the report, take out whatever cost they have entailed, write out a report and send us a check.”

“It is not uncommon,” Kenniston said. “You see some towns billing for nonresidents.”

Guptill said he calls it the “idiot clause,” that it will be up to the officer’s judgment if something is billed. If road conditions or a medical event are involved, if it is a true accident it will not be billed, he noted.

“We will amend the policy,” Castonguay said. “We will add that language, definitions of what calls would receive billing and the process.”

The updated policy will be shared with selectmen at a later meeting.