Kennebunkport limits Bush-related police duty

KENNEBUNKPORT – Without federal reimbursement, this tourist town will limit the use of its police officers to help provide security for President Bush during visits to his family’s seaside compound.

Police Chief Robert Sullivan said Tuesday he is limiting the Bush-related use of his officers to the routine traffic enforcement that would be carried out even if the president were not in town.

Sullivan’s comments came after Bush spent a long holiday weekend at Walker’s Point, his first visit there since taking office.

“We had a lot of overtime, but none of it was Bush-related,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he would like to help the Secret Service with such details as helping to guard checkpoints where police stop traffic before it goes near the Bush compound. But it can get expensive assigning local officers to those details.

The costs of the extra police needed to help the Secret Service protect the elder George Bush when he visited here as president ranged from $57,000 to $110,000 a year, depending on how long the president stayed.

A 1976 law authorizes the government to reimburse a president’s hometown for security costs. But while the elder Bush named Kennebunkport as his secondary residence, the younger Bush calls Crawford, Texas, his home away from Washington.

Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have proposed a bill allowing the president to name additional temporary homes. Under their proposal, qualifying communities with fewer than 7,000 residents could get up to $100,000 a year. Since the younger Bush is expected to spend much less time here than his father did as president, the costs are expected to be much less, Sullivan said.

In an effort to avoid setting precedent with legislation, Snowe also asked Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, to pay the costs administratively.

“Our hope and expectation is we will be successful,” Dave Lackey, spokesman for Snowe, said Tuesday.