Commissioners approve $2.3M jail budget
DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Piscataquis County Commissioners approved a budget totaling a little more than $2.35 million for the Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft during a meeting on June 16.
The $2.35 million jail budget is up by nearly $84,700 or 3.74% from the previous year. The rise is due in large part to salary raises and projected higher costs for heating and electricity. The exact utility expenses are to be determined.
“We are going to use 98,99% of this budget next year and that assumes everything goes well with heating and electricity,” County Manager Mike Williams said.
The $84,700 rise will be built into the county and Unorganized Territory budgets when working begins on these spending plans in the fall.
In other business, County Road Agent Carl Henderson will be heading to the Ski Resort Road leading up Big Moose Mountain. He will mark spots on the 1.6-mile travelway for the contractor to look at when developing a quote for road improvements.
Earlier in the month the commissioners voted to seek an estimate on repairs around the Ski Resort Road culverts
following a request from the Friends of the Mountain.
A likely inexpensive fix would be to have repairs made around the culverts to remove some of the material, such as hot top instead of cold patch, fill it back in and smooth the surface.
Sgt. Guy Edward Dow of Guilford emerged as the winner in a three-way Republican primary race to succeed retiring Piscataquis County Sheriff Robert Young.
Dow and Young have been meeting to plan for the transition.
Dow, 58, who has been with the sheriff’s office since 1997, has received 1,034 votes with 15 of 19 municipalities reporting. That put him ahead of Lt. James B. Kane, 54, of Sangerville with 657 votes and Chief Deputy Todd Douglas Lyford, 62, of Brownville with 535.
The three ran to take over for Young, who announced in January that he will not seek reelection. With no Democratic candidates, Dow is likely to become sheriff, though a challenger could still run against him as an independent or write-in candidate in November.
Young was elected sheriff in 2018 after decades of working in law enforcement, starting out as a corrections officer and dispatcher and rising through the ranks to become chief deputy at the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office.