Kennebec County Commissioners Approve Generator Warranty, VOCA Grant

Kennebec County commissioners approved a five-year extended warranty for the jail's generator and authorized the chair to sign a $75,000 VOCA grant for the district attorney's office. The board also heard updates on the sheriff's dispatch transition, county finances, and a pitch from the Kennebec Valley Tourism Council, and it deferred votes on three property tax abatement appeals to a future meeting.

Key points

• Commissioners approved a five-year extended warranty on the jail generator for $6,610, after the jail administrator reported a factory defect caused a month-long outage on the four-year-old unit.
• The board voted to authorize the chair to sign the VOCA grant, about $75,000 for district attorney salaries, moving signature authority from the district attorney to the commission.
• Sheriff reported progress on the county's move away from state police dispatch, saying a business plan is nearly complete and a meeting with affected towns is planned; he said the state will not allow the county onto its Spillman records system.
• Finance director reported general fund cash of about $13.7 million, roughly 50 percent of municipal taxes collected, and noted interest payments to the county begin November 1.
• The Kennebec Valley Tourism Council asked commissioners to restore about $9,000 in county funding, saying the money is matched and reinvested in regional events; commissioners directed the group to submit a request by early December for the budget process.
• Commissioners discussed three abatement appeals (Urquhart, Garnier, and Shaw), with consensus to have the county attorney draft decisions for a vote at the next meeting; the board appeared inclined to grant relief on the Urquhart and Shaw cases and deny the Garnier trailer appeal.

Next steps

• County attorney to draft written decisions on the three abatement appeals for a vote at the next commissioners meeting.
• Sheriff to finalize the dispatch business plan and meet with affected municipalities, with a three- to five-year cost projection to be developed with the finance director.
• Tourism Council to submit its funding request to the county administrator by early December for the budget process.
• Sheriff's office and finance to work out assigning WEX fuel cards to individual vehicles and centralizing vehicle titles.
• Two vendors to visit the courthouse to assess emergency access and egress ramps; a countywide ADA compliance review was suggested.

Read the full transcript