FARMINGTON — Selectmen on Tuesday night approved changing fluorescent lights to LEDs at the Police Department building and auctioning a 2016 sedan.
The building has 115 fluorescent bulbs that aren’t working, Police Chief Kenneth Charles said, and it would cost about $600 to replace them.
Adrenaline Electric of Farmington, one of the three companies Charles contacted, submitted an offer of $6,200 for materials and $2,200 for labor. Efficiency Maine rebates were included in the quote, he said.
“One of the key motivators is the savings in electricity costs,” he said. With a $1,700 to $2,000 decrease expected per year, the return on investment would take four years, he said.
Selectmen also authorized auctioning a 2016 Ford Interceptor sedan with proceeds going to the vehicle reserve account.
Trade-ins were not available when the Police Department purchased two vehicles this year, Charles said. The 2016 vehicle is the least desirable for front-line service. Animal control has been using it but a sedan isn’t quite suited for that, he said.
There is no cost to list the vehicle on a municipal site that has been used by the county and worked well, Charles said.
In other business, the board voted to process all plumbing permit fees through the town.
“I inherited the methodology that previous plumbing inspectors had done,” inspector Andrew Marble said. “All permit fees are paid to me, then I have to split the fee between my portion and the state.”
Licensed plumbing inspectors receive 75% of the fee; the rest goes to the state, Marble said. The state will only accept municipal checks, so once the fee is paid, Marble writes a check to Farmington for the state’s portion, with the town providing a check that is sent with a copy of the permits.
“It’s a ridiculous system,” he said.
Marble is the plumbing inspector in six other towns. The only other one that does it the same way is Temple.
The current system has some liability for Marble.
“It is a very strange thing to tell someone that for a municipal-required permit they need to write a check out to me,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen anymore.”
Interim Town Manager Cornell Knight said he talked with the treasurer and having the payments processed by the town can be done.
“It makes sense,” Selectman Dennis O’Neil said.
Between 60 and 80 permits are requested on average per year, Marble said. The town charges state minimum fees, although with an ordinance approved by voters a municipality can charge more and keep the extra, he said.
State permit fees are the same as in 2011, Marble said. Minimum wage in 2011 was $7.50 per hour, now it’s $13.80, almost doubled, he added.
O’Neil said it’s worth it to look into an ordinance to charge more for plumbing permit fees.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
