Oxford County Commission Chairperson David Duguay, of Byron, presents 20-year county registry of deeds employee Deborah Smith with a Maine County Commissioners Association retirement plaque during a workshop Thursday, Oct. 3. From left: Commissioner Tim Turner, of Buckfield; Duguay; Smith; Commissioner Steven Merrill, of Norway. Evan W. Houk/Advertiser Democrat

PARIS — Oxford County commissioners presented registry of deeds employee Deborah Smith with a Maine County Commissioners Association retirement plaque in recognition of her 20 years of service to the county during a workshop Thursday, Oct. 3.

“Enjoy your retirement,” Commissioner Tim Turner, of Buckfield, said. “There is life after retirement, and it is good.”

“Don’t worry, we made her write a book,” Registrar of Deeds Cherri Crockett said to laughs.

Commission Chairperson David Duguay, of Byron, and Commissioner Steven Merrill of Norway, were also honored with retirement plaques. Duguay has served as commissioner for 20 years and Merrill for 30 years.

“That’s 70 years of institutional knowledge,” Duguay said.

Republican Sawin Millet Jr., of Waterford, is running to replace Merrill in District 1 of Oxford County in the November election. Republican Lisa Keim and Independent John Walker, of Bethel, are running to replace Duguay in District 2.

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District 1 consists of Brownfield, Denmark, Fryeburg, Greenwood, Hiram, Lovell, Norway, Porter, Stoneham, Stow, Sweden, Waterford, and the unorganized territories of Albany and Mason. District 2 consists of Andover, Bethel, Byron, Canton, Dixfield, Gilead, Hanover, Lincoln Plantation, Magalloway Plantation, Mexico, Newry, Peru, Roxbury, Rumford, Upton, and the unorganized territories of Milton, Riley, and Northern Oxford County.

“I want to thank you two personally, for the mentoring you’ve done,” Commissioner Tim Turner, of Buckfield, told his fellow commissioners.

Commissioners also approved $6,680 for the purchase of bill.com billing software for the finance department, at the suggestion of Finance Director Lindsay Kay.

“(Bill.com) will automate a great deal of our accounts payable process,” Kay said. “It could save quite a bit of staff time.”

The software will cut down on redundancy and employee hours, County Administrator Zane Loper said.

Employees will now be able to sign things digitally with the software for faster approvals, flag duplicate payments, issue direct deposits by electronic funds transfer, and automatically sync with Quickbooks to enter data.

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Commissioners also approved posting to hire a temporary finance clerk to handle payroll so Kay can focus on filing required paperwork for American Rescue Plan Act funds by the end-of-year deadline.

“It’s a huge time-consumer,” Loper said of the ARPA requirements. “It is federal regulations, redundant, over and over again and it has to be done correctly and we have to be done filing this by January.”

Originally, the county planned on outsourcing the ARPA work to Community Concepts, but they are no longer able to do the work, he said.

Loper also said he has started looking into payroll services the county can use.

“That’s prudent. The way you’re approaching that,” Duguay said.

The commission will next meet at 9 a.m. Oct. 22, at the Oxford County Superior Courthouse on Western Avenue.

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