Staff photo/Don Eno FORT KENT — County commissioners approved the hiring of two additional full-time corrections officers, Wednesday, April 20, at their regular meeting in Fort Kent.
Charles Heath of Sherman and Shanice Gallagher of Hodgdon have both been part-time corrections officers since September 2014.
The positions were approved as part of the fiscal year 2015 and ‘16 budgets, Sheriff Darrell Crandall told the commissioners Wednesday, although they had not been permanently filled.
Crandall said he has been working to get overtime and other budget items in order before recommending filling those previously approved positions.
Crandall said the jail has been seeing an increasing number of inmates and that staffing adjustments need to be made. With the hiring of Heath and Gallagher, the number of full-time jail operations staff will be at 24 corrections officers and four sergeants, according to Crandall.
The county jail has seen as many as 115 or 117 prisoners on some days, Crandall said. The total jail capacity is approximately 114, he added. As of that morning there were 105 people being held at the Houlton facility.
Crandall said such numbers not only present safety issues but also cost the department money due to increased sick leave and lost time.
“We need to do this now, before it costs us in the long term,” Crandall said.
Crandall added that some inmates in the jail should probably be at a psychiatric facility, but that the system is unable to handle all of those cases in a timely manner.
Commissioner Norm Fournier of Eagle Lake asked Crandall if there would be any money from a recent Governor LePage proposal to increase funding to address such psychiatric cases.
Crandall’s understanding of that proposal, he said, is that it would expand psychiatric facilities at a downstate correctional facility, and not at other locations. That would, at some point in the future, potentially cut back on the number of such prisoners being held at county jails.
The commissioners also discussed LD 1614, a Resolve, To Provide Funding for the County Jail Operations Fund, which was recently vetoed by Gov. LePage.
That line-item veto was overridden by the senate, although the entire bill may still be vetoed by the governor.
That resolve would appropriate $5 million over the next two years to county jails. However, the funding formula used to distribute that money would not be based on the financial needs of each jail.
Fournier said he recently sent an email to legislators stressing that the funding formula should be based on need.
“Aroostook County has serious needs,” he said.
Some county officials have said they do not even need the extra jail money, according to Fournier.
Fournier added that it appears those changes are being considered by the legislature.
In other county business, the commissioners approved awarding a contract for the Houlton Superior Courthouse roof replacement project to Powers Roofing & Sheet Metal of Caribou, pending a review of the bid details to confirm that it meets the required specifications.
Powers’ $33,480 bid was the lowest among three submitted. Other bids were submitted by Roof Systems of Maine Inc. of Bangor and Kevin W Smith & Son, Inc. of Gorham.
Deschaine Sanitation Service of Madawaska was awarded a three-year contract to collect waste at the Sinclair solid waste transfer station. The company submitted a bid at the same amounts as the current contract.
Deschaine’s rates will be $8,460 this year, $9,070 in 2017 and $9,680 in 2018. Deachaine’s was the only bid submitted.
Tim Sides of Sherman was awarded a contract for the lawn care and maintenance of Silver Ridge Cemetery and Memorial Park, located on Maine Route 2 near Sherman.
Sides’ bid of $8,100 for three years was the lower of two bids received.
The commissioners also approved the appointment of Fournier and Tom Clowes of Madawaska Lake to the Northern Maine Development Commission’s executive board. Clowse will represent the unorganized territories.
The next scheduled meeting of the Aroostook County Commissioners is 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 4 at the Caribou Courthouse.
