Gorham voters will decide on Monday whether they want to nullify a Town Council decision last month to consolidate the town’s dispatching with Cumberland County.

“If they overturn the council’s vote, it’ll be the first time in 30 years citizens have told the council to spend more and increase the tax rate,” said Burleigh Loveitt, chairman of the Town Council.

In August, the council approved the recommendation of Town Manager David Cole to consolidate dispatching with Cumberland County. But a citizens’ petition sent the controversial consolidation decision to the townspeople.

The polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 12. District 1 votes at the Little Falls School on Acorn Street; District 2, Masonic Hall on Cressey Road; District 3, Gorham Middle School on Weeks Road; and Central at the Municipal Building on Main Street.

Cole said there’s a state mandate to reduce the number of emergency call centers in Maine. The director of Maine’s Emergency Services Communication Bureau, Albert Gervenack, wrote in a letter to Gorham Police Chief Ron Shepard that the bureau would only support five emergency call centers in Cumberland County. That’s a reduction from 13 emergency call centers in the county.

Loveitt said keeping dispatching would increase costs to renovate the existing Municipal Center. Renovating for fire, police and rescue could be $1 million. If the town decides to keep its dispatching, that figure could jump up an extra $500,000, he said. But he said there hasn’t been any formal renovation study.

Loveitt said it would cost the town $208,000 annually to keep the emergency call center if Gorham were to keep its dispatching. He also said the annual consolidation savings of $223,000 in Cole’s recommendation would have to be put back into the budget. Gorham had budgeted $432,344 for dispatching if it were to keep it. Cole said consolidating would save another $50,000 expense in replacing an existing communication tower on Gorham’s Municipal Center with a stand-alone tower.

Loveitt said consolidation would avoid spending about $1 million in two years. He said $400,000 in labor and emergency call center costs add up to 40 cents on the tax rate.

Steve Morin, the husband of former Gorham dispatcher Trixi Morin, believes it would cost only $40,000 a year more to keep an emergency call center in Gorham if the town kept its dispatching center. Morin’s wife did not apply for a position with the county.

Morin, a member of the School Committee, also questioned how the county is able to cover Gorham’s dispatching for $209,000 a year in their two-year contract. The county hired five Gorham dispatchers as part of the deal. Morin said a conservative estimate of the combined salaries and benefits for the five dispatchers totaled $242,000 a year.

The county arrived at its contract figure based on a study done by a consulting company, which based its estimate on per capita cost to provide the service. “We’re going to capture all of our costs,” said Peter Crichton, manager of Cumberland County.

Some Gorham citizens worry about loss of services and loss of local control under consolidation. “Most people would like to see it stay right here in local hands,” said Cathy Davis, a citizen who helped with the petition drive.

Gorham police officers have concerns, too. Dana Thompson, president of the Gorham Police Officers union, said members unanimously supported keeping dispatching in Gorham. Thompson said dispatchers provide so many services to the town and to police officers that he said consolidation would take officers away from their patrol duties.

“Undoubtedly, there will be numerous trips to the Cumberland County Dispatcher Center, which is located in Windham,” he said. “Granted, it is only located a short distance from the Gorham town line.”

“If there happens to be only two officers working, not only does that take one of those officers out of town, it puts that officer out of position to respond to emergency calls.”

Tim Hall, a former dispatcher for both Gorham and the county, said working conditions were better in Gorham than at the county. “Everyone gets along better. It’s more of a team atmosphere,” said Hall, who now dispatches for another community.

Hall said it takes a lot more training to be a county dispatcher. “They’ve got a huge workload,” Hall said about the county.

He said county dispatchers making assumptions have sent officers to addresses in wrong communities in the past. “I’ve been a witness to them. There’s been numerous mistakes,” he said.

Cumberland County took over Gorham’s dispatching on Aug. 17. Cole said county dispatchers are well trained, as were Gorham’s dispatchers. Cole said he’s heard good things about the county’s dispatching service from residents and said he hadn’t heard any problems.

“I know of no reason why county can’t provide professional dispatching to Gorham,” Cole said.

Consolidation of dispatching has worked well for other communities. The town of Cumberland contracted with Yarmouth for dispatching, which began a month ago. William Shane, Cumberland town manager, is happy with the result. “It’s gone very well. Pretty much a seamless transition,” Shane said. “Yarmouth has done an excellent job.”

And Bath contracted with Sagadahoc County for its dispatching, which began in 2001. City Manager John Bubier praised the move, which followed several years of discussion. “It went really well. I can’t imagine us going back,” he said.

For Bath, dispatching did stay in the city, although it was handled by the county. “You don’t lose response time,” Bubier said.

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