Commissioners reject office building proposal

ROCKLAND – The Knox County commissioners on Wednesday turned down a deal to acquire a former state office building to house the dispatch center, Sheriff’s Department patrol unit and Emergency Management Agency.

In a 3-0 vote, commissioners terminated their lease agreement with Blue Griffon LLC of Brunswick because costs would have exceeded estimates. The vote came after an hour-long executive session discussing the lease-purchase agreement on the 15,600-square-foot former Maine Health and Human Services building at 360 Old County Road.

The arrangement would have given county agencies an outlet for the tight space they occupy at the jail building at 327 Park St. The jail currently operates under a two-year, state-issued variance. The state allows the county to house 80 prisoners in the 56-bed facility.

The communications center, which provides 24-hour, E-911 service to Knox County’s permanent and visitor population of 42,000, occupies an estimated 310 square feet in a converted corner office at the jail.

Knox County Emergency Management occupies 710 square feet of floor space in a basement office and meeting room at the courthouse. The agency has no space for a functional emergency operations center to staff and coordinate an emergency.

County officials had signed an agreement in April on the property, but changed their minds when they saw how much money would be involved for monthly rent, moving from the jail and ultimate purchase.

Commissioner A. Mason Johnson Jr. said Wednesday the vote was the right thing to do.

In addition to concerns of mounting costs attached to the building, Johnson said he learned at a public hearing last month from residents who said the building was in an unsafe location.

“The costs were much higher and filtered into higher monthly payments, the buyout price and costs of moving into the facility,” said Commissioner Anne Beebe-Center. “It’s now a dead issue for the commissioners.”

She said the county had not paid any money for the lease, except for architectural and legal fees.

“We still have a space need, and we still have a difficult position,” she said. “We’re not dropping the problem altogether,” she said, and added that she doesn’t believe the decision will affect morale in the county agencies provided employees realize the commissioners will keep looking.

“Our next step is to reframe the conversation,” she said. “We need to communicate with the [state] Board of Corrections about the prisoners.”

She also said the commission’s decision should not affect discussions now under way to increase the transmission tower height from 75 feet to 90 feet, since the tower affects communications for the city of Rockland, as well.

Commissioner Lawrence Nash said the arrangement looked sound in the beginning last fall, but as changes occurred, the arrangement looked more and more costly to taxpayers.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

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