BINGHAM — Leah Lopez says she is fed up with a small group of children that have been causing trouble in Bingham this year.

They throw rocks at houses, act disrespectfully toward adults and have called Lopez a racial epithet, she said.

“I’m not the only one that’s fed up,” Lopez told a panel of law enforcement and corrections officials. “My neighbor is getting rocks every single day thrown at his house. Every single day! And the parents — they don’t care. They don’t care. Those kids don’t care!”

Lopez was among a group of about 25 residents who gathered Thursday night in the Upper Kennebec Valley High School gymnasium to voice their concerns about an apparent recent uptick in children committing crime in the town of fewer than 1,000 people.

Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster, whose office has been the sole agency that patrols Bingham after the Maine State Police stopped patrolling the county a few years ago, said addressing juvenile crime in Bingham — and across the vast, rural county — is a high priority. 

“Bingham is not an anomaly,” Lancaster said.

Joining Lancaster on Thursday to discuss residents’ concerns and answer questions were Maeghan Maloney, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties; Lt. Jason Madore, commander of the state police Central Field Troop; Christine Thibeault, associate commissioner for juvenile services at the Maine Department of Corrections; and Steve Labonte, regional correctional administrator at the Department of Corrections.

Rep. Liz Caruso, R-Caratunk, organized the panel after the same group of officials met several times recently to discuss community concerns. Lancaster had initially reached out to her, Caruso said, seeing if there was any way changes to legislation could help his office handle criminal cases involving children.

Caruso said representatives from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which Lancaster and Maloney said have become involved in some cases in Bingham, also met with them. They were not able to share specific details of that department’s actions due to confidentiality laws.

Lancaster said his office this year has investigated two major cases in which minors were charged in juvenile court: break-ins and vandalism at the former Somerset Rehabilitation and Living Center on Owens Street and the former Thompson’s Restaurant on Main Street.

But some of the children suspected of committing those crimes were younger than 11, which is now the minimum age in Maine for someone to face juvenile charges, Lancaster said. That has left authorities with their hands tied, at least when it comes to the justice system.

“That’s where DHHS needs to come in,” Maloney, the district attorney, said.

Lancaster said he hopes potential changes to the law Caruso has proposed would also give law enforcement more tools to deal with younger children.

“We don’t necessarily need to be locking the kids up,” Lancaster said. “What we need to do is be able to show them a path forward.”

In the meantime, however, those who attended Thursday’s meeting did not leave with a magic solution.

“When the streetlights come on and it gets dark, what is happening and what are we supposed to do when we call and you tell us you can’t do anything because they’re 9 years old?” Whitney Plog asked the officials.

The most important step to take, officials said, is to call and report any complaint to the Sheriff’s Office, even if the children are younger than 11. Officials also urged people to take photos and videos to turn over to police and prosecutors.

Lancaster said, as a band-aid solution, he has assigned Deputy Michael Pike to the schools in Bingham for a few hours a week. Pike is the school resource officer for Madison schools, a position created last year in response to concerns about juvenile crime in that town. 

“I don’t know if it’s cause and effect — I don’t know, maybe it’s coincidence — but we have seen a decrease in calls for service (involving juvenile crime),” Pike said.

Because Pike’s assignment is temporary, Lancaster recommended Bingham-based Maine School Administrative District 13 consider splitting the cost of a school resource officer with another nearby district.

Lancaster said he has also provided a cost estimate to town officials for a contracted deputy assigned to Bingham. His office has had a similar policing services contract in Madison since that town’s police department disbanded in 2015.

Madore said his state police field troop patrols only Kennebec and Waldo counties. The state police provides only special services, like a tactical team, to Somerset County when requested.

Madore said a pending bill in the Legislature would add four trooper positions assigned to patrol Somerset County.

Some residents said they have taken matters into their own hands to address the causes of local kids acting out.

Dawn Zammuto said she organized a community resource fair, inviting representatives from several providers and programs. The fair is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Oct. 23 at Upper Kennebec Valley High School.

Torey Brown, who grew up in Bingham and works as a social worker, told the officials she is working with others to create a community space where children and teenagers can spend time after school and in the summer.

The children committing crimes are a symptom of issues in a small, poor town with limited resources, she said.

“I would really like to not think of the children as the problem, which is very often the way it’s seen when you’re acting out,” Brown said. “But kids who don’t have proper resources and education and supports in their home, that’s what they’re going to do. It’s a community issue.”