FARMINGTON – Changing circumstances have prompted two public safety departments to consider sharing one fuel pump.
The town manager of Farmington met today with county commissioners, discussing a plan to utilize the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department fuel system for Farmington Police Department cruisers.
Currently, Farmington vehicles fuel at the former site of the town garage, near the intersection of the Farmington Falls Road and Main Street. However, with the town considering the construction of a new public safety building at that site, that 4,000 gallon tank would need to be moved.
One option, Town Manager Richard Davis said, was to eliminate the need for a fueling station entirely through the use of gas cards and local gas stations. While Davis is continuing to look into that possibility, he also suggested that Farmington could fuel its fleet at the sheriff’s department’s pump near the Franklin County Jail.
A key-operated locking system, currently in use at the town’s pump, would be installed on the county’s 4,000 gallon tank. Each department would have a key, and the readings off the system would indicate who had used how much fuel. The $925 estimated cost of moving and installing the system, Davis said, would be far cheaper for the town than reinstalling the Farmington station somewhere else.
Furthermore, he suggested, the county could potentially save a half a cent per gallon of gas by switching to Farmington’s more favorable fuel contract. Only gasoline-powered vehicles, cruisers and some fire department equipment, would fuel at the jail, Farmington currently uses the MSAD 9 bus garage’s pump for its diesel needs.
The commissioners moved to support the proposal. Davis noted that the idea still needed to be presented to the Farmington board of selectmen.
In other business, commissioners agreed to contact Hussey Communications, who oversees the radio communication network for the sheriff’s department. Chief Deputy Raymond Meldrum and Sheriff Dennis Pike both reported incidents where deputies have been unable to contact the dispatch center during calls. These have occurred not only in the sparsely populated northern part of the county, but in places like Avon.
Pike noted that the issue wasn’t simply a matter of geography. He recalled receiving Maine State Police broadcasts perfectly clearly, thanks to a tower/repeater system which stretches across the state.
“The technology is there,” Pike said. He added that the county had spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on communication system upgrades, much of it in the form of federal grants, and that the system should be able to perform adequately.
Commissioners also heard a presentation by Ted Blais, the head of University of Maine at Farmington’s security department, on the merits of a closely linked computer system. Blais recommended that the seven local departments, UMF Security, Farmington Police Department, Wilton Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, Carrabassett Valley Police Department, Jay Police Department and Rangeley Police Department, consider sharing a single set of servers to house their reports and logs.
That system, along with a back-up system at a separate location, would be accessible through each officer’s computer and laptop. Information would be logged and organized through one program, making it easy for dispatch to recover that information at a later date or for two departments to share data. The single system would also have lower maintenance costs and be cheaper to upgrade.
Blais said that he had filed for a $799,000 federal grant to pursue the single-system arrangement.
