AUBURN – The county’s budget talks keep going.

Six days after the 11-member Androscoggin County Budget Committee settled the annual spending package – it voted unanimously to overturn the veto of the County Commission – the commission plans Wednesday to re-examine pieces of the budget.

The commission still holds the purse strings, insists Chairman Elmer Berry.

“Just because the money is there, that doesn’t mean we have to spend it,” he said Friday. Plans that were an explicit part of the finalized new budget, including the addition of a patrol officer to the sheriff’s department, could still be scuttled.

“We’re going to look at the entire situation,” Berry said.

It had seemed over on Thursday, when the eight members of the Budget Committee gathered in the county Superior Court building.

The whole meeting took less than 10 minutes.

“It was very short and sweet,” said Michael Bowie, the committee’s chairman.

Somebody mentioned the decision by the Lewiston and Auburn city councils to endorse the Budget Committee’s $10.3 million spending package.

Then, the committee voted unanimously to pass their budget. A two-thirds vote of the group was needed to pass the measure.

“It was expected,” Berry said. “It’s not a problem.”

The Budget Committee’s vote pleased Sheriff Guy Desjardins, who lobbied for the added patrol position.

That job, meant to bolster the meager overnight staff, was one of three reasons the commission originally vetoed the budget.

The budget is too tight to be adding jobs, argued the commissioners.

They also disagreed with the committee’s use of more than $186,000 in Community Corrections money to offset increases.

As passed, the budget calls for an 8.2 percent hike in the tax commitment over last year, up $553,000 to $7.29 million.

Desjardins, who took office at the start of the year, said he is eager to be done with the budget. But he will also work to preserve the added officer.

“It’s been funded,” the sheriff said. “The communities are paying for it. And they are eager to have the added protection.”

for info box:

Androscoggin County Budget Committee

Michael Bowie, Lisbon Falls

Daniel Blanchard, Mechanic Falls

Renee Bernier, Lewiston

Phil Moreau, Greene

Robert Pontbriand, Auburn

Paul Labrecque, Lewiston

Herbert Reed, Lisbon Falls

Bruce Nadeau, Auburn

Dennis Roderick, Auburn

State Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello, Poland

State Rep. Mark Samson, Auburn