The Lincoln County Commissioners held a special early morning meeting with area lawmakers Jan. 17 to discuss upcoming legislation affecting the county.
Rep. Bruce MacDonald (D-61), Rep. Les Fossel (R-53), Rep. Deborah Sanderson (R-52), and Rep. Jon McKane (R-51) sat down with county officials prior to attending a session of the 125th Maine Legislature.
Of particular concern to county officials was LD 1614, a bill that would reduce the number of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in Maine from 26 to between 15 and 17.
PSAPs are 24-hour communication centers with “enhanced 9-1-1 capability.” A PSAP center receives 9-1-1 calls and directly dispatches emergency services, or transfers such calls to public safety agencies.
LD 1614, or “An Act to Create Efficiency in the E-9-1-1 Call Centers,” closely follows the recommendations of the Kimball Report, a state-funded study that calls for the Maine Public Utilities Commission to reduce the number of state PSAPs from 26 to between 15 and 17.
Speaking before the county’s legislative delegation, Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Pellerin said that he hoped they would support the bill.
The Kimball Report recommends that at least one PSAP center be operating in each county, leaving the Lincoln County Communications Center in Wiscasset intact.
LD 1614 faces an uphill climb, however. Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Morris has already signaled his opposition, and the Governor, according to Pellerin, has threatened a veto.
Morris has already indicated his intention to reduce the number of PSAPs from 26 to two, an attempt, he has said, to reduce spending. Should Morris’ plan go through, the Lincoln County PSAP would simply become a dispatch center.
Morris has support from the Governor’s office and from officials in southern Maine counties, who currently have a highly fragmented PSAP system.
Pellerin attacked Morris’ argument as both a potential danger to public safety and as a misguided way to save money.
Requiring that emergency calls first go through a centralized state PSAP would add 7-30 seconds per call, Pellerin estimated, not including errors made in the transfer process.
Pellerin also questioned Morris’ claim of increased savings, saying that dispatch centers would still need to be operational in all counties to receive calls.
Unlike the Kimball Report, Pellerin said, Morris’ argument is not based on any financial studies.
“There will be no huge money savings,” he said.
Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett agreed with his colleague.
“I see no savings here that I can see,” he said.
While saying he would support a two PSAP system if it was efficient, Brackett worried that local knowledge would be lost in consolidation.
If an older resident calls 911 and says he lives in Walpole, a PSAP official in Augusta might not know the town is technically part of South Bristol, Brackett explained.
Brackett postulated that the move to consolidate was most likely budget-related.
“The rational is more budget driven than anything else,” he said.
If there are only two state PSAP centers, the state would no longer have to share a 911 surcharge on Maine phones with county governments. The surcharge generates almost $10 million per year in revenue.
Fossel was the most vocal in support of the bill, saying LD 1614 gave towns more choice over their PSAP service.
“I want competition with PSAP service,” he said.
Fossell pointed to the four towns in Kennebec County currently using Lincoln County’s PSAP system because of a general dissatisfaction with the state PSAP in Augusta.
“Pittston had expensive, poor service,” he said. “Why would we want to have expensive, poor service?”
