Sheriff’s office dispatch center awaiting replacement doors

DOVER-FOXCROFT — The construction process to move the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center from cramped conditions in the county jail in Dover-Foxcroft into the administrative unit of the sheriff’s office on the first floor of the same building has been proceeding and is nearing completion.

During a meeting of the Piscataquis County Commissioners on Tuesday, Sept. 17 County Manager Michael Williams said a couple of security doors arrived damaged and will need to be replaced. He said this should take several weeks.

“That’s still on hold, but everything else is set,” Williams said. 

In early March Old Town-based project architect Vicki Leavitt told county officials all the contracts and permits were in place to begin a 6-month timeline through Sept. 9. In late November last year the county commissioners voted to proceed with a $668,944 project bid from Ganneston Construction, the lowest of three received.

County officials had planned to move the dispatch center from the control room at the correctional facility in Dover-Foxcroft into the patrol and investigation divisions building in downtown Guilford. Financially and logistically, the sheriff’s office was determined to be a better home for dispatch.

Leavitt looked at three options for the dispatch center’s new location, including the basement of the Peaks House, which houses county offices and commissioners chambers; the basement of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension building; and the first floor of the sheriff’s office. She recommended refurbishing the first floor of the sheriff’s office to meet the needs of administrative employees and dispatchers. Leavitt also said the former dispatch space will be used by jail staff with the locking doors remaining in place.

The dispatch center is too small for current and future operations, and office space is shared with corrections staff, according to the presentation made by Communications Design Consulting Group.

The dispatch center, when it was set to move to Guilford, was estimated to have cost $500,000, plus another $57,000 fee for an architect. By moving the dispatch center to a space in the sheriff’s office, where cable is already in place, a tower would not need to be built. The new tower was estimated to cost more than $100,000.

In other business, Sheriff Bob Young said he would present more information on adding cameras to the Piscataquis County Jail security system at the next commissioners meeting.

At the Sept. 3 meeting Young said cameras need to be placed within the days areas of cell blocks. He mentioned an estimated cost of $20,000 and said there is ample money for the cameras in a capital account.

The commissioners also approved a $1,000 contribution to the American Legion Cecil R. Cole Post 94 of Greenville for a project to repair the Greenville Veterans Memorial Wall, after Williams said the request came in that morning.

Per a post on the Post Facebook page, the names of 940 veterans from the War of 1812 through the Persian Gulf from Greenville and surrounding communities are honored on the memorial wall. The project would fix the name and title plaques and wall frame.

Cash or check contributions (payable to Cecil R. Cole Post 94 Greenville) can be dropped off at the Post at 218 Pritham Avenue or mailed to PO Box 1222 Greenville, Me 04441.