At press time, the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen plan to meet Wed., Aug. 29 at 5 p.m. to vote on Lincoln County’s proposal to provide police services in Damariscotta.
Damariscotta citizens would have to approve an amendment to the town charter to allow the board to close the Damariscotta Police Department and contract with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office instead.
The selectmen will decide at the Aug. 29 meeting whether to place the amendment before the town, probably for an Election Day referendum.
Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus and the selectmen met with Damariscotta Police Chief Chad Andrews and Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett Aug. 27 to review the proposal.
For details of the proposal, see “Lincoln County proposal by the numbers” in this edition.
Andrews, after expressing his admiration and respect for Brackett, the former Damariscotta police chief who originally brought Andrews to the department, said he does not think it would be worthwhile for the town to contract with the sheriff’s office for the immediate savings the change could bring.
Brackett acknowledged that there would be changes, not all of them positive.
“I think he makes some valid points,” Brackett said of Andrews. “I think it’s important for the townspeople to understand some things will be lost.”
“The most obvious one is the chief is going to be sitting in Wiscasset,” Brackett said.
Brackett also pointed out that the town would lose its administrative assistant, Jodi Prior, who mans the police station during business hours Monday-Friday.
The sheriff’s office would administrate the contract with its existing staff in Wiscasset. It’s not yet clear what the county’s Damariscotta headquarters might look like.
“It is different from what folks are accustomed to and folks should know that,” Brackett said.
Brackett did say he thinks his deputies would adequately perform all the functions on a list the chief handed out. “I don’t see anything here that our officers couldn’t do and don’t do now,” he said.
“The goal,” Brackett wrote in his proposal, “is to provide professional services to the same extent and beyond that the community has come to expect from its local police force.”
About a half-dozen citizens and business owners attended the meeting, with a few asking questions at the end.
Barnaby Porter owns and operates the Maine Coast Book Shop and Cafe with his wife, Susan Porter.
“If money weren’t the issue, which of course it is, can you think of any really terrific reasons why the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office should take over and displace the Damariscotta Police Department?” Porter asked Brackett.
Brackett said Lincoln County has a population similar in size to a small city. The county has a population of 34,457 as of the 2010 census.
“I think there could be easily one police department in all of Lincoln County,” Brackett said.
“I think Maine can learn a lot from what some other states have done,” the sheriff said. A single police chief often oversees an entire county in other states, he said.
“I think there’s some merit to that and I think that, like in some other states, Maine will be driven to it financially,” Brackett said.
He said the sheriff’s office, as a bigger agency with a bigger budget, is able to offer better and more training opportunities and is in a better position to compete for highly qualified personnel than the Damariscotta Police Department.
Porter, the book shop owner, also talked about the “sense of community” at stake.
“I think that’s something most of the people I’ve talked with have been worried about losing,” he said.
Damariscotta Police Department Chaplain Dave O’Donnell asked about the town’s contingency plan.
“What if it doesn’t work?” he asked. “What are the costs to break it off of the county and, if it doesn’t work, to re-establish a police department?”
Lutkus, the town manager, said the town would still own its equipment, although it would have to hire officers.
“You can’t just hire officers and have a cohesive unit,” O’Donnell said. “It takes time to build that trust among one another.”
“I really think you lose a whole lot,” O’Donnell said. “A lot more than what the savings will be.”
Chief Andrews reiterated O’Donnell’s point regarding the rehiring of officers.
“We’re not going to be sitting around to maybe have jobs two years later,” he said. “We’re not equipment.”
“As much as we love Damariscotta, we’re not going to magically come back and say ‘Please give us our jobs back,'” Andrews said.
If the voters approve the amendment and the selectmen contract with the sheriff’s office, the police department could close and the sheriff’s office take over as early as January 2013, Lutkus has said.
