Commissioners endorse new sheriff’s office

 DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine – The Piscataquis County Commissioners took another step at last week’s meeting toward replacing the aging and cramped sheriff’s office.

 After a lengthy discussion about how to finance the new building and the timing of a referendum, commissioners voted 3-0 to endorse the project.

 While voters will have the ultimate say on the new facility, Interim County Manager Tom Lizotte said that there are “no legal barriers” toward a county-wide referendum on financing the project. “(County attorney) Erik Stumpfel said that a bond issue is the most common way to finance such a project,” Lizotte said. “But he did express concern about the difficulty of getting a positive vote … because of Piscataquis County’s record of opposing statewide bonds over the years.”

 An alternate way of financing the new sheriff’s office would be to create a capital reserve account where funds would be appropriated for a specific number of years, he said.

 But since the new building could cost around $600,000, Lizotte and the commissioners agreed that it would take too much time to accumulate that amount. “You can’t just come up with $200,000 a year for three years,” Lizotte said. However, if voters approve a bond for 10 or 20 years “the impact on county taxes would be considerably less.”

 Realistically, Lizotte said that the June 2016 statewide primary election would be the earliest date for a county bond referendum. “I think a bond issue is the way to go,” said Lizotte. “If, for some reason, the bond fails, there are fall-back options such as the capital reserve idea.”

 Lizotte also said that the Department of Economic and Community Development has public facility grants available that could help with the construction cost. However, it’s questionable whether a new sheriff’s office would meet the criteria for “public health and safety” considerations.

 He also met with administrators of the Charleston Correctional Center about using inmate labor to offset some of the cost. “They were very enthusiastic about working with the sheriff’s department and county government on the new building,” Lizotte said. “It would be a bread-and-butter project for them. They could do the interior and exterior carpentry work with correctional center crews.” The savings could add up to $100,000, he estimated.

 Lizotte also suggested that commissioners endorse adding $46,000 to the 2016 county budget for engineering and architectural fees so construction can begin in the summer of 2016.

 Commissioner Fred Trask was skeptical at first, noting that passage of a bond to finance construction wasn’t all that certain. “So we’d have to spend the money, win or lose,” he said. But Lizotte said that the $46,000 would have to go through the regular budget process this fall, just like other expenses.

 Commissioner James White said that after he toured the sheriff’s office, he came to the conclusion that replacing it was “inevitable. And when something is inevitable, it’s cheaper to do it now than to later.”

 Commissioner James Annis said that when he went through the building recently, “It scared the hell out of me. I couldn’t believe the narrow staircase. Once you get to the top of the stairs, that’s the only way down – unless you want to jump out the window.”

 Annis predicted that if the county doesn’t take action, “Pretty soon the state will step in and make us do it.”