PARIS – Sheriff Wayne Gallant expressed strong opposition to Gov. John Baldacci’s jail plan Tuesday at the monthly county commissioners meeting.

“This isn’t a consolidation,” Gallant said. “It’s a takeover.”

Baldacci has proposed closing four county jails, including those in Oxford and Franklin counties, and bringing the remaining 11 jails under control of the state’s Department of Corrections. Baldacci said the plan would combat increasing jail costs, projecting an annual savings of $38 million by 2015.

After Baldacci’s announcement was made, Gallant remained neutral on the plan, saying he supported a plan that would save tax dollars, but was unsure how well Baldacci’s proposal could work.

On Tuesday, Gallant said he had been discussing the plan with Baldacci and expressed disappointment that the governor had not requested the input of the counties affected by the proposal.

Gallant estimated that closure of the Oxford and Franklin county jails would lead to a $500,000 increase in the Sheriff’s Office operating costs due to the need to hire personnel and buy vehicles to transport prisoners longer distances.

“It would be a nightmare,” Gallant said.

Commissioner Caldwell Jackson of Oxford said town managers he has spoken with expressed similar concerns over the longer drive to a jail under the plan.

Currently, the jail serves as a holding facility for people arrested for both serious and minor crimes. According to jail administrator Capt. Ernest Martin, the facility also allows people to serve sentences of nine months or less for felonies and up to a year for misdemeanors.

Prisoners awaiting arraignment in the jail are a short walk away from the superior and district courts.

Gallant said jail closure would affect 24 employees, who would need unemployment benefits, and affect the local economy. He was also wary of an inspection of the jail proposed by the state, which he felt would look at the facility budget rather than its conditions.

“They’re coming in for one reason, and that’s to make us look bad, as far as I’m concerned,” Gallant said of an impending visit by a team of state officials making the rounds at jails statewide.

The budgeted operating cost of the jail for this year was $1.2 million, or 18.8 percent of the county’s budget.

Commissioner Steven Merrill of Norway worried about the effect the plan would have on alternative sentencing.

“The state hasn’t given any consideration to that,” he said.

Commissioner David Duguay of Byron said the plan was not beneficial to the jail’s employees, taxpayers, or inmates.

Gallant also spoke of the possibility of moving the headquarters of the Sheriff’s Office, now in the same building as the jail, to a nearby house on Western Avenue. The building is rented by probation and parole as well as the Rumford Group Home.

“We wouldn’t have to do any major changes in that building,” the sheriff said.

Gallant said he would need state input on what to do with any space vacated at the Sheriff’s Office headquarters, but proposed that it could be used to improve the jail, namely enlarge the kitchen.