County eyes new home for dispatch

BANGOR – Penobscot County officials are considering trading spaces with the county dispatch center switching locations with a nearby state law library.

Facing a space crunch and with relief more than three years away when a new courthouse is to be built, county officials saw the switch as a more immediate solution.

“Right now is the chance to do things right,” Commissioner Tom Davis said during Tuesday’s commissioners meeting. Members of the board of directors for the Penobscot Regional Communications Center brought the proposed move to the table.

The center dispatches police, fire and ambulances for much of the county and is located in the basement of 3rd District Court on Hammond Street. Under the proposal, it would be moved next door to the third floor of the Penobscot County Courthouse. The space is occupied by a regional law library, one of two in Maine.

A combined district and superior courthouse proposed for Exchange Street in Bangor would provide more space when the courts move out of the Hammond Street locations, but that is about 40 months away.

County officials are looking at a more abbreviated timeline – a few months rather than a few years – to coincide with the installation of new dispatch consoles and updated Emergency 911 equipment expected later this summer. Officials said it would be more cost effective to install the equipment once rather than to move and install it a second time.

“I think we’re going to be throwing good money after bad money if we keep them in the basement and a few years down the road relocate them upstairs here,” Mark Leonard, PRCC board member and Veazie police chief, told the commissioners.

The county commissioners supported the switch to varying degrees.

Davis was the most vocal proponent. Commissioner Stephen Stanley said he was “leaning toward this” but that he had more questions, including about costs and obligations of the county that needed answering.

Commissioner Peter Baldacci, a local attorney, also needed more answers and said he wanted those who use the library – judges, law firms and the public – to be given a chance to weigh in.

“I’m just saying we need to discuss it with the current users and see if there is something we haven’t thought of and let them know of our intention,” Baldacci said.

Andrew Landry, president of the Penobscot County Bar Association, said Tuesday that he hadn’t known about the proposal and therefore couldn’t address it specifically.

The proposal hadn’t reached the state yet either, where James “Ted” Glessner, administrator for the Maine court system, said Tuesday that his office is expected to review it.