At their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 7, Lincoln County Commissioners were briefed on a proposed sale and purchase of weapons.

Chief Deputy Major Ken Mason of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office reported that the office currently has 50 weapons in its evidence locker and has recently received bids for the purchase of these weapons.

Three bids were submitted, ranging from $3,220 to $4,165. The winning bid of $4,165 was submitted by Interstate Arms, a wholesale distributor of firearms located in Billerica, Massachusetts.

The sheriff’s office has also received bids for the sale of 16 patrol rifles that are currently in use in cruisers. Four companies submitted bids ranging between $3,575 and $7,100 to purchase the rifles. The highest bid was that submitted by Riley’s Sport Shop of Hooksett, New Hampshire.

The commissioners were asked to approve the sale of both lots of weapons so that the proceeds could be combined to purchase 16 new patrol rifles for the Sheriff’s Office cruisers.

Major Mason explained that the rifles currently in use are 10 to 15 years old and cannot be fitted with modern optics. Following a discussion about situations that might require the use of rifles with optics, the commissioners approved the two sales and the purchase of new rifles unanimously.

Other business

Commissioners also discussed progress made to standardize county job descriptions.

An update was provided by County Administrator John O’Connell on the work of Laurie Bouchard of L. Bouchard & Associates, LLC.

Bouchard is a human resources consultant and has been hired by the county to assist in a thorough review of the employee compensation structure.

“This work,” O’Connell said, “is needed and hasn’t been done for almost 10 years.”

Job descriptions will be standardized based on responses provided by employees on questionnaires. It is expected that the result of the job standardization process will be reported to the commissioners at their board meeting on Oct. 21.

Presentation to county department heads will follow on Oct. 23 and implementation will begin mid-November in step with the County’s budget process. The new descriptions and compensation plan will become effective Jan. 1, 2015.