Meeting March 15, Lincoln County Commissioners approved a motion to place any undedicated Two Bridges Regional Jail revenues generated by Lincoln County efficiencies put into a Lincoln County corrections reserve fund.
“In laymen’s terms, this means the money we saved through our actions will stay with us,” said county administrator John O’Connell. “Which is significant as there are continued concerns over how the state develops their spreadsheets.”
Commissioner William Blodgett echoed O’Connell’s sentiments by saying the state relies on “creative” bookkeeping methods.
“It’s too bad to be so suspicious, but how could you not,” Blodgett said.
The commissioner’s action follows a Sept. 2010 announcement by the state Board of Corrections (BOC) detailing a multi-million accounting error in a biennial budget growth rate and budget request to the BOC Investment Fund.
According to BOC documents, the board originally approved a request for $3,522,614 but after the discovery of “mistakenly overstated revenues,” the request was for $9,638,135, an increase of $6,115,521 or roughly 274 percent.
In other business, Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett updated officials on a proposal to replace an aging LCSO pickup truck with a newer vehicle. Commissioner Sheridan Bond suggested utilizing “no interest” financing options offered by car dealerships as an alternative to buying a new truck outright.
“We can essentially use their money for six years and spread the impact out,” said Bond referring to the auto manufacturer.
Brackett noted that this approach had never been used before but agreed it would “save money” in his budget.
In a brief presentation by Lincoln County Director of Emergency Management Director Tim Pellerin, Commissioners were briefed on a bottled water donation by the Poland Spring Company. According to Pellerin, Lincoln County received four cases of bottled water, which can be used by a variety of county agencies. The bottles were deemed useless by the venerable Maine company after an employee inadvertently put the wrong bar code on the packages.
“This was a nice grab by us,” said Pellerin.
The Lincoln County Commissioners will next meet on March 29 at 9 a.m.
