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FARMINGTON – County commissioners, meeting today with members of the Rangeley Fire Department, declined to support that agency’s request to help fund a percentage of a new fire engine.
The county contracts with several towns to provide firefighting services in the Unorganized Territory, augmenting the initial response with the county-controlled Salem department. However, the county has always claimed that it isn’t responsible for helping those departments pay for capital expenditures, a stance which the state has supported.
This is has led to a series of meetings, controversies and agreements between the towns, especially Rangeley, whose department is responsible for a large area, and the county commissioners. In December 2008, Rangeley Town Manager Perry Ellsworth sent an email to the commissioners, explaining why the town has asked for a nearly $15,000 increase in the U.T.’s fire protection line.
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“The Selectmen of the Town of Rangeley feel this purchase [of a fire truck] is part of our cost to provide the best services as a regional provider,” the email read.
It went on to state that “presently the Town of Rangeley is not in favor of supplying services beyond June 30, 2009 [when the current contract between town and county expires] unless we receive the signed contract by [April 1, 2009].”
Today’s meeting was scheduled after Rangeley did not receive the signed contract last April, with services expiring a few days ago. The commissioners, back in December 2008, set the town’s fire protection budget for the U.T. at $18,542, effectively removing the capital expenditure.
Department officials, along with Ellsworth, said their point of view had not changed.
“We strongly believe that in order to provide the best possible service for all,” Ellsworth said, “that this needs to be worked out.”
Rangeley officials pointed out that they also contractually provided services for local plantations, who pay a percentage of the costs of equipment. Their requests have come down substantially from last December, and the latest contract asks for $20,148. That additional $1,600 represents a portion of the $14,960 that Rangeley believes the county should pay on the $270,000 pumper/tanker truck.
Commissioners, however, did not agree.
“The counties are not normally involved in the process of purchasing equipment for towns,” Commissioner Gary McGrane, of Jay, said.
“We see it as part of the cost of operation,” Rangeley Fire Department Captain Dennis Marquis said. He noted that the current funding formula uses by his department set the county’s responsibilities at a little more than 5 percent. “We feel it’s you obligation to help provide for your share of the service. It’s only fair.”
“5.365 percent is pretty minimized on $13 million worth of property value,” Ellsworth noted.
Still, commissioners noted that the U.T. budget had already been approved, eight months ago, and that it couldn’t be changed now. Ellsworth said that his town would submit a new contact, with the $18,500 figure incorporated, and that the town and county could revisit the subject again.
The Rangeley Fire Department has some other concerns it wishes to discuss as well. At last official count there were 246 structures in their portion of the U.T. The department wants the ability to discuss incorporating fire prevention strategies and fire suppression systems with people building homes and camps there, as that number continues to increase.
