Grants sought for Maine county emergency dispatch

By Scott Taylor
The Sun Journal

AUBURN, Maine — Federal grants could help area emergency dispatch officials combine 911 answering services, Twin Cities councilors heard Monday.

Dispatch officials will ask Androscoggin County commissioners for permission to apply for two federal grants to help defray costs of offering a single dispatch center, according to Phyllis Gamache Jensen, director of Lewiston-Auburn 911.

One grant would provide $130,000 to help combine Lewiston-Auburn 911 and the Androscoggin County dispatch service under one roof. Another could provide $50,000 to help study how the new combined service would operate and how it would be funded.

"We also need to talk to outlying towns in Androscoggin County to learn about their needs," Jensen said. "We need to find out where they have problems and if there are holes in the services they currently receive so we can address those."

County commissioners in September approved a plan that would merge Androscoggin County dispatching and the Lewiston-Auburn 911 call center.

According to Lewiston Fire Chief Paul Leclair, the center would be housed in the current Lewiston-Auburn 911 center on Minot Avenue. It would be governed by Androscoggin County.

"It would also be required to distribute costs fairly among all of the users and present a tiered system for services to meet the needs of the rural towns and communities as much as the larger ones."

The state Legislature has called for the reduction of 911 answering centers from 26 to 16. That prompted the current discussions.

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