FARMINGTON – Commissioners received a report on ongoing efforts to improve emergency communications within Franklin County and set the 2015-16 tax commitment at Tuesday’s meeting.
The meeting began with a moment of silence for Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon, who died at Portland’s Maine Medical Center on July 4. Hardy served for 23 years as a county commissioner for District 2.
Commissioners received an update from Communications Director Stan Wheeler about the county’s ongoing efforts to address issues with emergency communication throughout Franklin County. Reported issues range from poor coverage on portable units and mobile units to poor performance by repeaters. Dispatchers have reported equipment failure and long lead times on equipment repair, as well as frequency bleed, resulting in garbled communications. In the field, these issues result in firefighters missing page alerts, police officers unable to reach dispatchers and units talking over one another on different frequencies as dispatchers receive incoherent communications.
The county is addressing the issues through a series of improvements to different elements of the communication system, including the towers, the repeaters and equipment within the dispatch center itself, such as the 10-year-old radio console unit. At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners signed a contract with Communication Consulting Service Inc. to oversee those projects over the next fiscal year. CCS president, Richard Davol developed the initial report on the county’s issues and needs.
A technical adviser contract had previously projected to cost $10,000. Instead, Wheeler had structured the contract to cover the engineering needs of four projects associated with the communication system overhaul. The county will therefore pay CCS $5,000 for system-wide evaluations and $2,000 per project, for a total of $13,000.
Wheeler said that county officials were already planning to meet with the landowner of the property that includes the Mosher Hill tower in order to discuss possible improvements. He had also arranged a demonstration of a Zetron radio console unit on July 15 at the dispatch center. That console would be available through a 5-year, lease-purchase agreement that would meet the county’s needs without spending money to refurbish and extend the life of the county’s existing, aging unit.
Additionally, a grant-funded unit positioned on a state/U.S. Customs & Border Patrol tower on West Kennebago Mountain could provide some assistance to the system. Franklin County Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Hardy said that Somerset, Washington and Aroostook counties were looking to place equipment on the tower through a grant meant to improve communications near borders. Commissioners signed a co-location agreement at Tuesday’s meeting; discussions on how the concept would tie into the entire system would continue.
Commissioners also approved the 2015-16 tax commitment, following last week’s setting of the budget by the budget advisory committee. The assessment portion of the budget was set at $5,172,443, along with an overlay of $35,402. The mil rate for the next fiscal year will be .00117, up slightly from the previous fiscal year’s .00108.
Tax bills will be issued in November and February. The 7 percent interest rate on late payments is set by the state.
From this article, the tax rate (mil rate) for the County was just increased by 9%. I did not think a 9 % increase was slight…..