Naples and Raymond will join the county emergency dispatch center Jan. 1 after Cumberland County commissioners on Monday approved contracts for both towns.
The vote settles the question of dispatch services for Naples and Raymond, which were partners in the Naples dispatch center, along with Casco, until the latter town withdrew. Officials in Naples and Raymond then found it was too costly to go on with the Naples center, and both decided to pursue an agreement with the county.
The decision also resolves for the moment a debate between Raymond and the Cumberland County Regional Communications Center board of directors, which oversees the dispatch system and advises the commissioners.
The board angered Raymond officials by pulling an offer for a five-year agreement and instead recommending to commissioners a six-month provisional contract, citing Raymond’s past displeasure with the county system and the town’s stated desire to secede from Cumberland County.
Selectmen were also upset that they were not invited to the meeting at which the communications center board made its recommendation, and that it appeared language allowing the county to opt out of the contract was included in Raymond’s contract alone.
Following a pointed discussion Dec. 2 with Bill Holmes, communications center director, and Commissioner Malory Shaughnessy, Raymond selectmen voted unanimously to approve the five-year contract, which, unlike the six-month proposal, had been reviewed by the town’s attorney. They then implored Shaughnessy to convince her fellow commissioners to approve the contract.
While thanking Holmes for appearing at the meeting, and praising the director for his honesty and integrity, Raymond officials said the communications center board was needling them as a result of years of sometimes acrimonious dealing between the town and the county.
Selectman Joe Bruno said the board’s decision was puerile retaliation for criticism levied by Raymond officials over the years at both the county dispatch system and the county as a whole.
“Some arbitrarily picked board out there decides, ‘Oh, we are going to slap them around a little bit,'” Bruno said.
Town Manager Don Willard said the selectmen’s decision to research the possibility of leaving Cumberland County for Oxford County, a result of their displeasure with the town’s steadily rising county tax bill, should have no bearing on the dispatch agreement. Secession is merely an idea, he said, one of many the town is exploring at any given time.
“It’s nothing for this board of directors to be concerned with. I don’t understand it,” said Willard. “No one ever contacted me to ask any questions.”
Raymond Fire Chief Denis Morse said the county dispatch center was built with tax dollars from all Cumberland County towns, including Raymond. It was the county’s duty, then, to provide dispatch services to Raymond, he said.
“Until they are self-sufficient, they can’t single anyone out,” he said.
Holmes said he forwards the names of prospective towns to the board after a town has voted to join, just as a matter of procedure. The requests are handled as they come in and usually in short order, he said, and the towns are not notified that they are on the agenda. The board, he added, is made up simply of representatives from member towns.
The additional language in Raymond’s contract is the result of months of conversations with the county’s legal personnel, he said. The language will be added to all new contracts, Holmes said, and was not meant to single out Raymond. The commissioners ultimately approved the contract with the new language, and the document will now go back to Raymond selectmen.
Willard recommended the selectmen sign the five-year agreement, and hopes the contract can be the start of a new history between Raymond and Cumberland County.
“If we have a good experience, maybe we can all be happy for a change and move forward,” he said.
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