County leaders mulling options for sheriff’s office

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Earlier in the month, by a 1,427-1,323 margin, Piscataquis County voters defeated a referendum question asking for the permission to spend up to $610,000 to construct a new Sheriff’s Office building at the intersection of East Main and School streets.

“After the results came in I think we were all disappointed,” Interim County Manager Tom Lizotte said during an Nov. 17 meeting of the county commissioners. “I would rather lose by 10,000 votes than 104.”

Lizotte said the county’s budget advisory committee discussed the referendum and the consensus was that despite the vote the need still exists to resolve the present issues at the sheriff’s facility — such as a lack of adequate work and interview space and storage concerns. “This needs to be a shared decision between the commissioners who control the money and the sheriff who controls the need,” he said.

The commissioners have several options. One could be to hold another vote in 2016, possibly during the June primary rather than in November when the ballot should be full with the Presidential election and other items. If this possibility is pursued then the project may be downsized to bring a lower pricetag to the voters.

A second option could be to establish a capital reserve account with funds for a new building set aside over a period of years. “This does remove any finance charges,” Lizotte said.

The commissioners could approve the purchase of a nearby East Main Street building “and renovate it to fit the sheriff’s needs,” Lizotte said. He said the structure, which dates back to the mid-19th century and is structurally sound, could possibly be renovated for a third of the $715,000 cost (the bond plus interest) for the structure turned down at the referendum. The county may also be able to negotiate the purchase price and make these payments over three years.

“That is an option if it meets the sheriff’s department’s need,” Lizotte said, as the commissioners would be able to make such a decision and a referendum would not be needed. “On the surface it does meet a lot of the needs.”

Lizotte said a Skowhegan-based company constructs buildings, such as for the court system, which are then leased to the state. He said the former Department of Health and Human Services building in Dover-Foxcroft was constructed under such an arrangement. “The question is will we have an option to buy at the end of the lease,” Lizotte said.

The county could also consider renting a modular building, similar to a school’s portable classroom, or renovating the existing sheriff’s office. “You still end up with the same square footage which is a problem with the current building,” Lizotte said.

Sheriff John Goggin said his preference would be to have the company build an office for his department, provided the option to buy was included. “That would be the ultimate thing to do without going to referendum,” he said.

Goggin said he puts the blame on himself with the referendum being turned down by just over 100 votes and because “we only had 2,700 people go out to that vote county-wide.”

“If we had advertised the fact more we may have stirred up a little more interest,” he added. Goggin said after Nov. 3 he heard that some “no” votes came from residents not wanting their taxes to increase. “If we had laid it out on the line how much taxes were going up town by town and how much individual taxes would go up, they would see it was a drop in the bucket and maybe they would have thought that wasn’t that bad.”

The sheriff said he and members of the department have looked over the current office. “There is pros and cons to that whole complex over there,” he said. “It’s going to take a substantial amount of money to fix up all the cosmetic things inside the building and outside the building.”

He also wondered if improvements made to the existing facility may end up only being temporary, and the the need for the a new building could come up again in five to 10 years. “I just don’t know which way to go, I’m a little disillusioned with the process. I think we all are.”

After the vote Goggin said some feedback indicated residents were not happy with the idea of the proposed complex having a wash bay and a weight room. Goggin said the weight room was really more of a locker room than an exercise facility. “A lot of little things like that affect the vote,” he said.

“My opinion, if we downsize and make it a simpler building I think it would pass,” Commissioners Chair Fred Trask said, saying the county should also look into the lease with option to buy possibility on a constructed office.

The commissioners made no formal decision as Lizotte will conduct more research on the various options and will bring this information to a future meeting.

In other business, Lizotte said the review process for the 2016 county and 2016-17 unorganized territory (UT) budgets was set to conclude on Nov. 18. “As (Commissioner Jim Annis) says, they haven’t found much to complain about, the budget is tight,” Lizotte said. “The current bottom line on the county budget for 2016 is $4,005,573,” or over $77,000 less than the 2015 spending plan.

“Overall the county tax commitment for 2016 would increase by $26,000,” Lizotte said. He said there is a split among communities that would have a higher county tax vs. towns seeing a decrease from 2015, with rates based on valuations.

“The UT budget has really remained unchanged,” he said.

The annual public budgets hearing is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. in the Superior Court Room (the second floor) of the courthouse. The commissioners are scheduled to then get the various recommendations for the meeting on Dec. 1, and could take a formal vote on the spending plans two weeks later on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

The commissioners also reviewed a pair of bids for the replacement of the heating boiler in the jail.

The first proposal by Siemens Electric of Dexter is for $175,845. A.E. Robinson of Dover-Foxcroft had a trio of options, ranging from $67,185 to $81,954.

Jail Administrator Maria Landry and others will look at the bids in-depth to bring a recommendation back to the commissioners. “We do have the money in capital, we have $388,000 and change,” Landry said about the account.

The commissioners also accepted the recommendation of Register of Deeds Linda Smith to appoint the department’s Clerk Specialist Gail Clark as deputy register of deeds starting at the beginning of next year.

 “Gail has been here two years and three months and she’s been excellent,” Smith said. “She’s really a perfect fit for the job and she deserves to be deputy.”