HOULTON, Maine — After a nearly two-hour meeting fraught with emotion and deep frustration, town councilors agreed by consensus last week not to eliminate the dispatching services provided through the Houlton Police Department.
Councilors had been considering doing away with the local dispatchers and instead contracting out to a communication center operated by either the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office or the Maine State Police.
The matter had not been listed as an agenda item and no formal vote was taken, Town Manager Butch Asselin confirmed last Wednesday. But the councilors agreed to not pursue contracting out the service, though they could bring the matter up again during budget talks in November, Asselin said.
During the Oct. 13 meeting, which was attended by approximately 25 residents, dispatchers presented the council with a petition signed by approximately 1,000 community members who supported keeping dispatch services within the Houlton Police Department.
Residents, co-workers and family members told town leaders how vital they felt the dispatchers are to the community. The councilors responded that they also had heard from other residents who wanted to see some belt-tightening, as they were concerned about increasing school and municipal spending, including for employee health care and wages.
The contracting out of dispatching services was initially raised at a council budget workshop in October 2014, according to Asselin, who last month presented a report outlining estimated savings, costs and one-time expenses to councilors.
According to the document, it would cost the town an estimated $42,578 annually to have dispatching services provided by the sheriff’s office, and $47,844 if by the state police. The town would save $148,797 the first year by using the sheriff’s office dispatching service and $145,324 the second year, according to the report. It estimates that with the state police, the town would save $122,531 the first year and $140,058 the second.
With four full-time dispatchers, HPD provides 24-hour communication services for police, the Houlton Fire Department and the Houlton Ambulance Department and handles approximately 7,200 calls for service annually, according to the report.
Cheryl Quint, who works at Houlton Regional Hospital and attended the Oct. 13 session, said that she supported keeping the dispatch services at the police station.
“We use them on a daily basis,” she said. Quint noted that at times at the hospital, it is vital to get police to respond quickly to unruly patients with mental health or substance abuse issues. Quint said the dispatchers are vital to getting police to respond quickly. “Whenever we feel we are in danger, they are there. We need them.”
Houlton Police Chief Joe McKenna has maintained that he was opposed to switching providers not only because of the job losses, but also because of the potential loss of control over dispatch operations to a larger agency. Another concern was that if the local dispatch service was shut down, the HPD lobby would close with it, losing what he called a “safe haven” for lost children and pets.
Aroostook County Sheriff Darrell Crandall made clear his position in a letter to McKenna in May. He said that an agency with the size and call volume of HPD was “better suited to retain your own dedicated dispatch service.”
Houlton Fire Chief Milton Cone said he sympathized with the position that the dispatchers were in when he spoke to the council, and added that he hoped a decision would be made soon.
“How much longer should these people have to be put through this?” he asked.
Cone has said he has numerous concerns about the proposal, including about the huge amount of radio traffic handled by local dispatchers. He said that last year, Houlton Ambulance received 1,874 calls.
An ongoing problem, he said, is that dispatchers and first-responders in southern Aroostook are still dealing with “the worst uniform house numbering system” in the state, often because some homeowners have failed to number homes to comply with Maine’s Enhanced-911 emergency reporting system. This can result in delayed responses, which Cone said is happening at times with the ambulance crews. He said he supports the local dispatchers because they are more familiar with the people and the area.
Cynthia Milton, who lives in Ludlow and whose husband, Tom Milton, is a dispatcher for the Houlton Police Department, said she was “appalled” at the proposal that was placed before the council. Milton said she felt that balancing the budget on the backs of the dispatchers was the wrong move and was sure to fail.
Several residents in attendance at the meeting asked the council to vote on the measure that evening, but councilors said they could not, as the issue was not listed as a formal agenda item up for public hearing.
“No formal vote was taken on the issue, but I think that the council heard the community and they saw the petition and their consensus reflected a show of support,” Asselin said Wednesday.
The town manager said he felt that the council absorbed all of the reports from both the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine State Police about dispatching services over the past month and had made a well-researched decision, although he conceded that all departments were eligible for cuts when it came time to review budgets in November.
