Communications center may get major IT upgrade

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
    DOVER-FOXCROFT — The pending retirement of Sgt. Tom Harvey from the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department, who is also the county’s IT specialist, has prompted officials to look into a major upgrade to the communications system.
    Last week, county officials discussed the cost of eventually replacing the phone system, computers and partnering with Penobscot County to share the benefits of a Spillman Dispatch system.

    They learned that the cost won’t be cheap, but the upgrade is long overdue.
    County Manager Marilyn Tourtelotte said that some of the sheriff’s department computers still had Windows XP, which stopped being supported by Microsoft earlier this year. In addition, Harvey created the programming for the dispatch center in order to save the county money. “But when he leaves, he takes that knowledge with him,” she said.
    Piscataquis County is the only one in Maine that doesn’t use the Spillman system, Tourtelotte explained; and if they were to purchase it on their own, it would cost $250,000 to $300,000 plus up to $30,000 a year for maintenance.
    If Piscataquis partnered with Penobscot County, however, the initial fee would only be $80,000 and yearly maintenance would be $9,200. “The Spillman system would not only help the sheriff’s department, but all the police and fire departments in the county,” she said.
    Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Capraro said that when a fire call goes out on an enhanced dispatch system like Spillman, “they not only get a tone, but a text message to their cell phone and even an email.”
    Dover-Foxcroft Fire Chief Joe Guyotte said that under the current system, each firefighter has to confirm that they’ve received the call “putting a load on the bubble (dispatch center). Then the dispatcher has to confirm each one.”
    With the Spillman system, Guyotte said that within 45 seconds of the first call “my cell phone would ring and leave me a text message of exactly where the fire is. Our system is antiquated. Our firemen have voted in favor of trying this on our own, hoping that you people (commissioners) will eventually change the system.”
    Commissioner Fred Trask made a motion to work with Penobscot County on partnering with their Spillman system. “These are serious issues and we can’t ignore them,” Trask said. The measure passed unanimously.
    In other news from last week’s meeting, commissioners approved the hiring of Carl Henderson of Greenville Junction as the new county road agent, succeeding Tracy Lord who recently retired and plans to permanently relocate to Florida.
    Tourtelotte said that Henderson was one of seven applicants for the part-time position and three were interviewed. “He worked for 11 years as a heavy-equipment operator for the town of Greenville … and he’s also attended numerous DOT (Department of Transportation) local road workshops. So he’s got a good background,” she said.
    Henderson works in the maintenance department at Greenville Consolidated School, but Tourtelotte said that his schedule is flexible enough to accommodate the new position.
    Commissioners also agreed to modify its minimum bid policy on contracted road work to $5,000, up from the current $2,500 threshold. Tourtelotte said that $2,500 “is barely enough to move a piece of equipment much less dig a hole and put a culvert in.”
    The county manager also pointed out that the state guideline on the minimum amount required for goods or services to go out to bid is $10,000.