By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Voters will decide on Tuesday, June 11 whether or not to cut Limestone Police Department patrol hours from 24 to 18, and the elected outcome will be implemented for the town’s 2013-14 budget.
The Limestone Selectpeople proposed the idea as part of a plan to offset the anticipated $100,000 shortfall in this year’s budget, resultant of the projected decrease in revenue sharing the town will receive.
In an attempt to compensate for the reduction of state funds, roughly $100,000 has been tentatively eliminated from the FY13-14 budget — but nearly half of that adjustment is dependent upon the town cutting their police patrol hours.
The board has stressed that reducing patrol hours from 24 to 18 will mean the difference of a police department budget of $247,000 or $200,000, respectively — but during the last selectperson meeting, the board wasn’t able to answer logistical questions should the voters approve the 18-hour patrol day.
One of Limestone’s reserve officers and a citizen of the town, Reed Nonken addressed the board with questions ranging from what type of calls officers would respond to during that six-hour window to whether or not the town would see a reduction in funding from the Loring Development Authority (LDA) in conjunction with the decreased active patrol hours.
Questions the board was unable to answer included how the town planned to cover the cost and liability of an on-call officer responding from an outside community, what type of calls police officers will respond to during the six hour on-call window and what sort of impact the shift in hours would have on the business community and the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.
“We’ll have to talk to [Police Chief Stacey Mahan] about that,” said Selectperson Chair Tom Devoe, responding to a question regarding what police officers will and will not be responding to at 3:30 a.m.
Devoe emphasized that the choice will be put to the town during the referendum vote to determine 18- or 24-hour police department coverage.
“My concern from a citizen’s prospective, for me to vote appropriately on it — if I’m going to have that cost added to us or not — I would want to know what I’m getting for the cost,” Nonken said.
“To weigh that cost-benefit analysis, I would like to have a little more clarity as to what this is really going to mean,” he added.
Board members commented that Nonken did bring up some excellent questions that hadn’t been brought up before — like how parents would respond to sending their kids to the boarding school that lacked 24-hour police coverage.
Nonken’s final question regarding the proposed reduction in patrol hours was whether or not the decreased coverage would impact Limestone’s relationship with the LDA and the financial contribution they make for those services.
“I would like to know this before I cast my vote,” Nonken said.
Devoe informed Nonken that the board intended to arrange a meeting with LDA President and CEO Carl Flora to iron out a few things.
“Remember,” Devoe said, “If the governor hadn’t said everything he wanted to do, we wouldn’t be doing this.” He also mentioned that the town may lose more than they anticipate losing through the decreased revenue sharing.
“I totally understand where we are, I just want as much information as I can have to make a more intelligent decision,” Nonken replied.
The board agreed to have some of Nonken’s questions answered in time for the next Selectpeople meeting — scheduled for Wednesday, June 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Limestone Municipal Building — and expressed that they will be asking the police chief to attend. The town will vote on the 18- or 24-hour police coverage during the vote on Tuesday, June 11 held from 8 a.m. through 8 p.m. at the Limestone Municipal building; the annual town meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the LCS auditorium.
Waiting for the state to deliver figures on revenue sharing, which were slated to be set sometime in June, the board also tabled action until July on requests to change the town’s personnel policy.
At the end of the May 15 meeting, Selectperson Gary O’Neal congratulated the baseball and softball teams at the High School which are both experiencing successful seasons.
“They’re playing excellent ball,” he said.
