LIMESTONE, Maine — The former Loring Air Force Base will continue receiving fire protection from Limestone after a vote from the town’s Select Board Friday night.
The board unanimously agreed to accept Loring’s offer to pay $35,000 for fiscal year 2023-2024, with monthly payments of $2,916.67. The town’s decision comes after they originally requested $1.2 million from Loring for eight years of police and fire coverage.
At a time when more business and housing development is possible at Loring, town officials want a greater say on what happens there, especially when town services are involved. Select Board members voiced a desire to continue negotiating with Loring and reach agreements they feel serve the town better.
“I hope you understand that we are trying to work with you,” said Select Board Chairperson Randy Brooker, while addressing Loring Development Authority CEO Carl Flora, who attended via Zoom.
Limestone disbanded its police department last spring, but had been providing police and fire protection at the Loring Commerce Center since 2015. Though Loring had been paying $20,000 yearly for police coverage, Loring and Limestone never signed a former agreement for fire services, Brooker said.
The town’s initial request for $1.2 million included $280,000 for fire and $960,000 for police protection over the past eight years.
Town leaders determined that Loring officials should have been paying $35,000 yearly for fire, 35 percent of that department’s budget, and $140,000 yearly for police, 35 percent of the former department’s budget.
Loring Development Authority still owns and operates most of the Commerce Center, which was created after the base closed in 1994. Earlier this month, Loring offered to pay the town $35,000 for this fiscal year, which would equal monthly payments of $2,916.67.
Limestone officials countered by requesting that Loring pay at least $280,000 for fire service, condemn unsafe, vacant buildings on Manser Drive and repair nearby potholes.
After an executive session Friday night, the Select Board agreed to settle conflicts surrounding fire service but continue negotiations with Flora and Loring’s board of directors on future fire and police compensation.
Loring board members had said that paying $280,000 to the town would be impossible, given a shortfall in Loring’s fiscal year budget of $19,250.
Five buildings at Manser Drive are set to be demolished and the neighbor’s roads are slated for redesign and repairs per a $3.1 million grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Loring received in 2021. But Loring must wait on results of environmental tests this fall before that happens, said Loring Development Authority President and CEO Carl Flora last week.
Flora and the Select Board did not discuss Manser Drive or police compensation Friday but scheduled a private meeting to take place Thursday, Oct. 5.
“Loring Development Authority appreciates the support the town has given us in many forms, including fire service,” Flora said. “I hope that we can continue to work together towards a common goal.”
