Boothbay Harbor selectmen have decided to end 9-1-1 communications calls to the local communications center effective May 31, but county officials want more planning before the move.
“We need a process in place to do it right,” said Tim Pellerin, Lincoln County Communications director, during the Tuesday morning of Lincoln County Commissioners’ meeting March 2.
Pellerin said the town has been talking about closing two shifts and leaving the daytime shift only as well as closing the local communications center altogether to save money.
The changeover to the Lincoln County Communications Center in Wiscasset has long been a county recommendation but staffing, overtime budgets and other concerns make it a move that needs some planning and negotiations that would avoid any compromise to the type of service the county now receives, Pellerin said.
“We want to be able to maintain our gold star position in the state,” he said.
Pellerin said such details as whether Boothbay Harbor expects LCCC to do dispatching as well as receiving the 9-1-1 emergency calls would make a big difference in the cost to the county.
“If we have to have another fulltime person, it’s not in our 2009 budget,” County Administrator John O’Connell said. “Something like this is a cost savings for them.”
O’Connell said the county has the best communications center in the state now and he has made it clear to the Boothbay Harbor selectmen the county would not want to compromise its current level of services as well as any future services to Boothbay region residents.
“The whole impact on the county is huge,” Commissioner Lynn Orne said. “There’s a lot of issues. I don’t see how it can come without a cost to them.”
Storm report
Pellerin gave a report on county emergency action taken during last week’s storm and subsequent power outages that he said amounted 12,000 meters throughout Lincoln County.
“We were the hardest hit in the state,” he said. The extent of its effect amounted to more than the ice storm of 1998, in Pellerin’s estimation.
Pellerin said the unanticipated wet snow and heavy wind combined in the Midcoast area principally caused the high storm impact but commended Central Maine Power Co. (CMP) for getting all of the county back online within three days.
“I understand the CMP is going to have an aggressive tree trimming project. That seems to be the major problem,” Bond said. “I think they’ll find preventative maintenance is the way to go.”
Sixteen people used the overnight shelters in the county but a lot more people went to the five feeding and warming shelters to mainly to get warm for a while, to take a shower, and get water.
In the future, shelters other than local schools may have to be used because the day after a snow day, schools generally reopen complicating it as shelter use for area residents.
Orne commended Pellerin and the county emergency management team for its efforts during the storm including a specific incident in which an Edgecomb resident was without power for four days and the temperature in her house was frigid, but she did not dare to leave her house because of animals.
She said the person received help promptly as soon as the need was communicated.
