SKOWHEGAN — Somerset County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to renew a contract with the town of Madison to provide police services through the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.

The contract, which renews the agreement for police services for one year, includes new language that allows the town to be reimbursed for training costs if one of their deputies is moved to another part of the sheriff’s office. It was approved by commissioners 4-0 Wednesday with no discussion. Commissioner Phil Roy was absent.

State law allows municipalities to be reimbursed for training costs if an officer moves to another department within five years of his or her training. Even though the former Madison Police Department was absorbed by the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office last year, there is still a separation between the two with the town paying the county to cover all policing services, including training costs.

“What we wanted put in there specifically was if, say one of our deputies was trained and paid for by the town of Madison and then that deputy took another position, say up in the unorganized territory, in that situation the county would reimburse the town,” Madison Town Manager Tim Curtis said.

After the sheriff’s office assumed control of operations in Madison last year, one deputy took an open position elsewhere in the county, Curtis said. The town was not reimbursed for the deputy’s training, which had taken place within the last five years and was paid for by the town.

“Technically, we could have asked for that $8,000 or $10,000 worth of training costs, but we chose not to,” Curtis said. “Instead of doing that, we asked for this new language to be included in the contract.”

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The cost of sending an officer to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and paying for someone to fill in while the officer is away at training is about $35,000, according to Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster. The town of Madison is scheduled to pay $485,000 over the course of the 2016-2017 year for police services, about a $90,000 savings from the budget for the Madison Police Department.

Although the contract was approved officially by commissioners Wednesday, it has been in place in the town since the first contract expired July 1, Curtis said.

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368

rohm@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @rachel_ohm


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