County officials proceeding with budget prior to year’s end

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Currently, Piscataquis County officials are working on a 2016 county budget totaling $4,007,542 for the 2016 calendar year along with a sum of a little more than $1,471,870 for the Unorganized Territories (UT) for the 2016-17 fiscal year. Both spending plans were the subject of a public hearing on the evening of Nov. 30.

“There were no surprises, nothing starting came out of that,” Interim County Manager Tom Lizotte said during the next morning’s meeting of the county commissioners on Dec. 1. “I think the budget is set as far as it can be at this time.”

He explained the only possible change could come from contract negotiations between the county and the union representing the sheriff’s department employees on an agreement for 2016-18. Should a wage increase be agreed to then there is still time to adjust the budget figures before the end of the year, otherwise a new contract will be included in next year’s spending plan.

County officials have also been looking a number of options for a sheriff’s complex after a referendum to fund a new building for the department was voted down at the November referendum. A meeting to discuss the specifics was scheduled for Dec. 2, prior to Lizotte sitting down with a Skowhegan-based company that constructs government buildings and then leases the space to various agencies. The commissioners had previously wondered if a lease to buy option was a possibility with the construction firm.

In other business, county officials met with Marcia McInnis, state fiscal administrator of the UT, to discuss the ongoing deorganization efforts being made by the town of Atkinson.

“Basically we have had some starts and stops in the de-organization process,” McInnis said. “It involves writing a procedure, which we have this morning, and who is going to provide the services if deorganization is successful.”

She said the procedure identifies financial risks and liabilities, which in Atkinson include salt and sand pile cleanup, a bridge on the McCorrison Road, other travelways and costs related to waste disposal in Dover-Foxcroft. “The key element on the state level is the DOE’s providing of services,” McInnis said.

Education in UT Director of State Services Shelley Lane said the various options for Atkinson students — the community has 30-plus pupils currently who attend classes to the east in SAD 41 where the community is the smallest of four district towns — were considered. She said when weighing all the factors, should the town deorganize into a UT then the recommendation would be for Atkinson students to attend RSU 68/Foxcroft Academy.

“From what I understand Milo would be hurt by the loss of students from Atkinson,” Commissioner Jim Annis said.

McInnis said SAD 41 could face an approximate $293,000 net loss in subsidy if the Atkinson students attended the school unit to the west. She said for this to happen then the town would have to withdrawn from SAD 41 and would have to settle any debts with the district before exiting.

According to the 2010 census data, Atkinson has 326 residents along with its 30-plus SAD 41 students. McInnis said both figures are much higher than other Maine towns that have or are in the midst of deorganizing, with the populations usually being less than 100 with few if any pupils.

“This is an unprecedented size, there is no community even near who has deorganized,” she said. “We do not have a comparable situation anywhere in the state.”

Later in the day McInnis was scheduled to meet with Atkinson officials. She said the town, like other municipalities in Piscataquis County, is losing taxable land to conservation. “That’s the other side of the equation,” she said.

Lizotte wondered that should Atkinson’s effort be successful, might other area small communities look to follow suit and fall under the jurisdiction of the county. He told McInnis he would review the documentation she had.

The commissioners also met with Jail Administrator Maria Landry to discuss bids for the replacement of the heating boiler in the county jail. Last month the commissioners opened a bid from Siemens Electric of Dexter for $175,845 as well as a trio of options from A.E. Robinson in Dover-Foxcroft ranging from $67,185 to $81,954.

Landry said the bids were sent to the Mid-South Engineering Company of Millinocket for review, and the recommendation is the county go with the lowest of A.E. Robinson’s three bids for the heating boiler project.

The review by the engineering firm cost about $1,000 and Commissioners Chair Fred Trask said, “That’s a big investment, it’s worth it.”

The costs will be covered from a capital account, totaling $388,000-plus.