HOULTON – Even as technicians this week were installing equipment at Maine State Police Troop F for the barracks to become a Public Service Answering Point for Enhanced 911, just how that system would operate in Aroostook County was not clear.

Aroostook and Hancock counties are the only two of Maine’s 16 counties that have not provided funding to equip or staff PSAPs for their counties. Part of an amendment to LD 1467 – which covers implementation of the E-911 system in Maine – if approved, would eliminate the 3.2 cent surcharge that had been intended to cover the extra cost to pay for state E-911 dispatchers at Houlton and Troop E in Orono, which was to serve Hancock County.

In a letter to Aroostook County commissioners dated May 9, Norman Ferguson, state Senate chairman of the Committee on Utilities and Energy, and his counterpart from the House of Representatives, Rep. William Savage, wrote that the issue of funding for PSAPs is “a local matter which we believe is appropriately left to local government. We believe coverage should neither be mandated by the state nor provided by the state at the expense of an increase in the E-911 surcharge.”

The funding issue developed a few months ago when some officials from other counties balked at having to have residents in their counties pay an added 3.2 cent surcharge to fund PSAP operations in Aroostook and Hancock counties, when they were already paying for that service in their own counties, too.

Municipalities in Aroostook County, as well as the county commissioners, have long maintained that since the state gets the money from the telephone surcharge for E-911, it is a state program and it should be fully funded by the state. The surcharge currently is 32 cents per telephone number.

In addition to cutting 3.2 cents from the proposed new 58-cent surcharge, language in the amendments offered by the committee also would eliminate any requirements for the Emergency Services Communications Bureau to provide E-911 service to any county or municipality that didn’t want it.

“At the 11th hour, that is just terrible to suggest,” said Aroostook County Administrator Danny Martin at Wednesday’s commissioners meeting, noting that E-911 service was set to be implemented statewide in August.

At one time, seven PSAPs were proposed for Aroostook County. Upon being told that all state police barracks in Maine would become PSAPs, county and municipal officials in Aroostook County determined that only one was needed for the region and that it should be Troop F, which already served as the regional communications center.

“We wanted to avoid duplication of services and we were going by what we were told,” said commission chairman Norman Fournier, explaining why the county did not provide any funding.

Currently, there are 48 PSAPs planned or in operation, with 14 in Cumberland County and 11 in York County. Kennebec County has five, Penobscot County will have four and Androscoggin County will have three. The remaining counties will have one each.

Lt. Barry Smith, commanding officer for Troop F, said Friday that there is a backup plan and it was his understanding that the state has always wanted to make sure that all residents received the benefits of E-911.

If the funding could not be provided through the Emergency Services Communications Bureau budget, there was an option that additional money could be put into the state police budget to cover the cost of personnel for dispatching. He said seven dispatchers would be needed at Troop F.

“The thinking was that a commitment was made that all the state police barracks would be E-911,” Smith said.

He added that such an increase in the state police budget would still have to be approved by the Legislature.

Meanwhile, county officials have vowed to fight the amendments offered for LD 1467 and are urging municipal officials in the region to do the same.

“Our position [on funding] has not changed,” Fournier said. “We ought to do whatever we possibly can to see that this bill gets defeated.”