March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Dispatch center again a priority> County, Belfast weigh feasibility of joint emergency operations

BELFAST — Establishing a regional emergency dispatch center for Waldo County is back on the front burner.

The sudden death last month of Sheriff Robert Jones put a temporary hold on the project, but new Sheriff Scott Story assured Waldo County commissioners Tuesday that planning for the center was still going on.

The county is investigating whether it would be more feasible to develop a center on its own or to work in concert with the Belfast Police Department. The county sheriff and the Belfast department each handles its own dispatching. Officials of both the city and county have said that a joint center is worth looking into.

“Now that the dust has settled from the loss of the sheriff, we’re trying to pick up the pieces,” Story told Commissioners Stan Knox and Robert Gould on Tuesday. Commissioner Joseph Smith was out of state and did not attend the meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting with the commissioners was Story’s first since being elevated to the post. With him was his new chief deputy, former Sheriff John Ford. Ford, who retired two years ago, was made chief deputy last week.

Story reported that he recently visited a regional dispatch center in Oxford County. He said he and city officials also discussed the option of building a dispatch center on county land next to the Sheriff’s Department and jail. He added the radio tests would soon be conducted to determine the feasibility of sites in downtown Belfast, “should we decide to go off the complex on the hill,” also in Belfast.

Story said his meeting with Belfast Public Safety Director Robert Keating and the city’s code enforcement officer, Blaine Richardson, centered on the city’s requirements for building in a residential zone.

Richardson compared a dispatch center to a professional office building. He said requests for that type of use within a residential zone would require the approval of the planning board. He noted that the size of the county’s lot would likely require the removal of the barn next to the Sheriff’s Department in order to accommodate a dispatch building.

“I cautioned that because this is a public building, it would have to be done by a design professional,” Richardson said Tuesday. “Anything they put up there would have to look the same as the buildings around them. That is an area with fine residential homes.”

Besides considering a site near the Sheriff’s Department, those involved with the regional dispatch talks have also discussed using the upper floor of the former Fleet Bank in downtown Belfast.

Bangor Savings Bank, the owner of that building, has agreed to sell the property to the city for $375,000. The city intends to relocate its police department to the ground floor and will be looking for a second floor tenant. The City Council has to vote on the purchase of the bank before the deal before ownership can change hands. A vote on the issue is tentatively scheduled for March 7.

Story indicated to the commissioners that he should have more detailed information on the matter of the dispatch center within the next few weeks. He said he will be contacting officials from the county’s 26 communities as well as keeping the members of the county budget committee informed of his progress.


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