HOULTON, Maine — During the regular meeting of the Houlton Town Council this week, councilors presented ideas for a town warming center available during short-term power outages.
These preliminary discussions were prompted by a Christmas Eve power outage in Houlton. At the time, Public Works Director Chris Stewart prepared a warming space at the recreation center on Main Street for anyone needing to warm-up, get comfortable or recharge cell phones.
“The high school is a designated emergency shelter, but we found recently that sometimes with power outages of less than 24 hours, we could use the rec center as a warming center,” Houlton Town Manager Marian Anderson said in an interview. “We decided we needed to start working on formalizing the process.”
Although still in the early planning stages, Anderson said it would not be a shelter with food or overnight accommodations, but rather a spot to get warm during outages lasting less than 24 hours.
During the meeting, councilors discussed obtaining estimates for a generator for the warming center and blankets and pillows for the space. Others suggested the council decide on how and when the warming center would be used as well as a means to inform the community about the space. .
In other business, Town Manager Anderson reported that last year’s $840,000 revenue projections for Houlton Emergency Services, fell short by $130,436 due to staffing shortages during part of last year.
Because of the shortages, the EMS crew could only respond to emergency calls for service and taking transports was limited, Anderson said.
“If we had been fully staffed, we certainly would have met our projections,” Anderson said, adding that the EMS is now fully staffed.
The next Town Council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m.Feb. 6 in the town office, 21 Water Street or via Zoom.
