LISBON COMMUNICATION CENTER

This coming Tuesday night, January 24, 2017, our Town Council will conduct a workshop pertaining to the Lisbon Communication Center.  The start time is 06:00 PM which is an earlier start time than normal meetings/workshop.  The last time, the Lisbon Communication Center was discussed was on October 6, 2015.

 At that time, the Town Council received a dog and pony show orchestrated by the Police Department.  This dog and pony show was filled with misinformation and false statements.  The reason it was allowed to happen is because of politics.  At no time did the members of this dog and pony show verify their facts and certainly did not have the best interest of the community at heart.  This is apparent by the FACT that all 911 calls received by the Androscoggin County Dispatch have to be relayed to the Lisbon Communication Center before our First Responded can be dispatched.  If they could not reach the Lisbon Communication Center, First Responders do not get dispatched to the scene.  I personally visited the Androscoggin County Dispatch and talked to the two operators on duty and they both said there were numerous times they could not reach the Lisbon Communication Center, the first time. This delay makes the town liable for the results of this delay.

I hope that the Chairman of the Town Council or the Town Manager has invited Sheriff Samson or Martin Fournier to attend this workshop to sort out what is true and what is false.  The Town Council needs to have all the FACTS before making any conclusions. 

The primary focus should be on improving the quality of life of our people by having Androscoggin County Dispatch or another Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) provide dispatch to Lisbon.  This would mean that when a request for emergency services (911 calls) is received the 911 operator will immediately contact our First Responders and not have to relay the call to the Lisbon Communication Center.  The current system puts our people’s lives at risk. Eliminating the middle process expedites the process and gets our First Responders on the scene more quickly.  In an emergency, time is the most critical factor. 

There is another advantage to having Androscoggin County Dispatch dispatching our First Responders and that is the elimination of the Lisbon Communication Center saving the town approximately

$200,000.00 tax dollars!  This is a significant cost savings for the community.

Call you Councilors and ask to have representatives of the County attend this workshop so the community gets ONLY FACTS and not misinformation.

Larry Fillmore