Alna selectmen on May 6 voiced initial support for joining with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office on animal control services. The town is currently without an animal control officer, a situation that occurs every two or three years, First Selectman David Abbott said.

Other than the considerable turnover just as towns have experienced, the county’s program, involving multiple, on-call animal control officers has become pretty successful, Sheriff Todd Brackett told selectmen. Damariscotta, Whitefield, Bristol, Waldoboro, Bremen and Jefferson all have contracts with the county for animal control, Brackett said.

Under the program, local animal control officers become county employees that serve on the on-call list, along with other animal control officers that the county hires; the county bills a town monthly for service in that town, at $15 an hour plus mileage at the federal rate, Brackett said. The officers get a minimum of two hours’ pay for going out on a call; towns pay out of their local animal control budgets, he said.

When a town is nearing the last of those funds for the year, it can opt to increase its animal control budget or stop the county service for the remainder of the year, Brackett continued. “You decide what you want to do.”

Alna’s animal control position currently pays $12 an hour, up to $1,500 a year, Town Clerk Amy Warner said. The town had nine calls last year and spent $500 on animal control, including training for the officer. Towns in the county program share training costs, Brackett said.

The contract with Alna would need county commissioners’ approval, Brackett said.

Selectmen said they would consider joining the program after residents have had a chance to respond to the idea.

“As attractive as this is, I’d like to see what the town thought before I acted on it,” Third Selectman Douglas Baston said.

The program could help Alna avoid gaps in service due to turnover or other problems with availability, town officials said. “That’s why we were interested in looking into this .... You guys could pick up the slack,” Abbott told Brackett.

“It’s like the best of both worlds,” Baston said.

Looking for firefighters

Alna Fire Department President Kathy Pendleton asked if the selectmen could help come up with ways to recruit firefighters.

“It’s really been a struggle,” she said.

So far this year, four firefighters, some of whom moved out of town quite a while ago, have left the department.

“And they were all interior attack people,” Pendleton said. The average age in the department was in the mid-50s, although that may have changed, she said.

The board, selectmen and Warner discussed ideas including a committee; and contacting Juniper Hill School to see if any parents who are new to town would be interested in joining. Some probably came to town to access private education, Baston said. “And I think they want to be part of the community. Maybe this is a tangible way.”

Support for Federal Street weight limit

Selectmen reaffirmed a prior Alna board of selectmen’s stance against the removal of a 6,000 pound weight limit on Federal Street in Wiscasset. The board felt it was important to make clear that Alna’s position hasn’t changed under a new board, Abbott said on May 7.

At a Wiscasset selectmen’s meeting on May 5, Baston called for keeping the weight limit. Some Newcastle residents that night spoke in favor of its removal, which would let trucks take Route 218 to get to Route 1.