PARC and EMS hope to break impasse

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Piscataquis Amateur Radio Club (PARC) is still locked out of the Piscataquis County Emergency Management Services’ communications bunker in Milo, but there may be a break in the impasse soon.
    EMS Director Tom Capraro told the Piscataquis County commissioners last week that he’d like to have a meeting with some of the PARC officers, the commissioners and two neutral parties to iron out the differences between the entities.

    Capraro announced at an earlier commissioners’ meeting that he had restricted club members’ access to the emergency operations center bunker in Milo because of what he described as abuse of their privileges.
    PARC has traditionally had 24-hour access to the building in addition to using it for club meetings, but Capraro said he felt that this arrangement was contrary to a memorandum of understanding between the county and the group.
    Capraro and County Commissioner Fred Trask then met with PARC officials Dave Ramsey and George Dean later in the month, and Capraro described the meeting as “a little hostile at the beginning” but productive overall.
    Capraro said that Hancock County EMA Director Andrew Sankey and Phil Duggan of Milbridge, the section emergency coordinator for Maine Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES), are both willing to serve as the neutral parties in a follow-up session.
    However, PARC President Ben Kittredge, in an email to Capraro, questioned the need for Sankey and Duggan’s involvement. “What aspect of the bunker’s use necessitates the use of outside help?” he asked.
Capraro told commissioners that there may some “internal problems” at PARC that may not be related to the bunker issue. He read part of a letter from PARC secretary Deb Kacsowski to the club membership stating, in part, that there seemed to be “confusion, frustration and lack of facts” following a recent club meeting. “I hope to bring things into perspective for everyone and dispel any notion that PARC is unwilling to sit down and work with the county, EMS or the EMA director.”
    Capraro also noted that only one other county — Waldo — allows a private radio club to use its EMS facilities “and that’s for meetings only.”
    Trask agreed that a meeting should take place with all the commissioners present “so we all know what’s going on. This is a county facility and we all have a stake on it.”
    Commissioner Eric Ward often attends meetings via conference call from his workplace on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, but said that he will be back in Maine later this month.
    PARC has operated out of the bunker for 20 years and has traditionally provided radio communication services for county-wide events like the Piscataquis River Race.
    In other action at last week’s meeting, commissioners approved the appointment of Julie Ann Brown-Workman as the victim’s witness advocate for the district attorney’s office and Lucas Greenfield as a full-time corrections officer. Greenfield had been a part-time officer at Piscataquis County since 2010 and worked full-time for the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.