County renews auditing contract

DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Piscataquis County government and RHR Smith and Company of Old Orchard Beach will be working together for another three years as the firm will continue to provide auditing services for the county, unorganized territory and jail budgets.
A second three-year agreement was approved during a March 7 meeting of the county commissioners.
County Manager Tom Lizotte said the commissioners met with Chris Backman of RHR Smith and Company last month and they discussed a proposed increase in the auditing contract. “The overall difference is $1,200 more for us for the next three years, and that’s still a good price for us,” Lizotte said.
He said the price for the county audit would increase $500 to $4,500 annually, the unorganized territory rate would would be $300 more at $1,900 and the yearly rate for the jail finances would be $3,900, over $400 more than the previous amount. The combined annual audit costs would be $10,300 moving forward.
In other business, the commissioners approved a revised emergency operations plan for the county complex prepared by the Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency and a safety committee.
“The main change is we used to have separate operation plans for the separate buildings, but it doesn’t make sense because we are one county government,” Lizotte said. He said the revisions divide the campus into various zones, including the first and second floors of the courthouse, the Peaks House, University of Maine Cooperative Extension building, sheriff’s office and jail.
“The rest of it was the elimination of superfluous language,” Lizotte said. “If you are in an actual emergency you don’t want to go through a 50-page document.” He said the new plan includes specific sections for emergencies such where to go in the event of a bomb threat.
“This is the effort of over a year’s work of the safety committee,” the county manager said, adding emergency drills will be conducted using the newly-adopted plan.