RANGELEY, Maine — The local police chief is concerned about a proposal by the Maine Department of Public Safety to remove the blood-alcohol testing equipment from nine towns, including Rangeley, to save the state money.
Chief Dennis Leahy said Thursday he received a letter earlier this month from Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Morris stating Rangeley would be one of nine towns in Maine to lose its blood-alcohol Intoxilyzer machine.
The first sentence in Morris’ July 16 letter read, in part, ” … your department will no longer be a location for a breath-testing instrument and that you will not be receiving a new replacement unit.”
Morris added, “While I understand you may have specific concerns regarding the elimination of your site, this decision was made with the intent to reduce federal expenditures for the procurement of new testing instruments and to further reduce the state highway fund expenditures for the administration of the Implied Consent Program.”
The state owns and maintains 109 of the machines and is hoping to obtain a federal grant to replace them within the next year, but part of that replacement plan involves removing a dozen machines, including three used by Maine State Police, from locations around Maine.
Each machine costs between $7,000 and $8,000 new and between $2,000 and $3,000 a year to maintain and calibrate for accuracy so the results can be used as evidence in court cases, Morris said.
He said the departments with the lowest number of OUI tests conducted in 2011 were the ones chosen for elimination. The plan was worked out with the Maine Police Chiefs Association and seemed to be the fairest way to handle the reductions, he said.
The option for Rangeley would be to transport OUI suspects to Farmington for blood-alcohol-content testing. That’s about 43 miles and an hour’s drive. Leahy said the shift would mean greater costs for the town. It would also mean a town officer would be tied up for as long as four hours transporting and testing each suspect. With only three full-time officers, that could leave the town without adequate police coverage.
Beyond that, Leahy said the travel time alone could mean suspects that are over the legal limit to drive at the time of their apprehension could come in under that limit by the time they got to Farmington and would not be prosecuted.
And not being able to quickly and accurately test suspects could lead to increased drunken driving once word got out that Rangeley couldn’t test for OUI, he said.
Morris said Thursday that Leahy’s concerns were premature. The state was only in the initial stages of deciding how it would proceed with replacing the machines.
“We haven’t even put out the [requests for proposals] to replace these machines and we are anticipating the grant but do not have it in hand as of yet,” Morris said. “So there’s really no change that is going to occur for months and months.”
Morris said the grant was in conjunction with the state’s Bureau of Highway Safety and the federal money is meant to enforce against highway-related impaired driving.
He said his best guess as to when the new machines would be available for installation would be early in 2013.
“Is there room for change?” Morris asked. “The answer is yes. This is just the inception. I’m going to take everybody’s concerns into consideration. This is not in concrete yet.”
Morris said he did not know how much the state would save by reducing the number of Intoxilyzer sites.
He said Rangeley’s machine was used 10 times in 2011 for OUI testing of suspects stopped while driving.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, with 447, conducted the most tests in 2011, Morris said.
He didn’t want to say which other departments were notified they would be losing an Intoxilyzer machine, but all had light use and some didn’t even use the machine in 2011.
Leahy said the Maine Warden Service, Maine State Police and sheriff’s deputies in Oxford and Franklin counties also use Rangeley’s machine. His figures show the machine was used 17 times in 2011.
He said it was made clear to him by Morris that the town was losing its machine and it wouldn’t be replaced.
The three machines to be removed under the proposal that are used by state police include one at the crime lab in Augusta, one at a barracks and the third at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, Morris said.
The one machine at the crime lab is essentially a loaner sent to departments when the machine they are using is out for repair. Leahy said Rangeley used the loaner for six months once while it waited for a repair on their machine.
“So I would even question the wisdom of getting rid of that machine, because you are going to end up with a department someplace without one for up to six months,” Leahy said.
He said it seemed unfair to count only the OUI tests done out on the highway, because keeping the region’s snowmobile and ATV trails and its waterways free of impaired drivers was an important public-safety concern.
Morris agreed but said the federal funding only covers highway enforcement of impaired driving.
He said a number of state lawmakers from Franklin County and other areas had questioned the proposals to reduce the number of machines. But the bottom line is that the state is in difficult financial times and the department is looking to reduce costs wherever possible.
“We are doing this to save money,” Morris said.
He said the Department of Public Safety offered to cover the costs of blood tests for suspected impaired drivers. Those tests could be done at a fraction of the cost, he said, but they also do not allow an officer to know immediately whether a suspect is over the legal limit because they have to await the results from a lab.
Morris said he recently had a “productive” conversation with Leahy.
Leahy said that conversation left him believing the decision was a “done deal,” and there was nothing the town could do about it.
“So, I don’t know who he was talking to, because it wasn’t me,” Leahy said
what lame brain is running that show
The federal goverment is broke…cut more of this useless crap
Keeping drunk drivers off the roads is crap?
Let’s start saving money by cutting methadone treatment and mileage reimbursement first.
Im sure most people in Maine dont realize how much money is spent just transporting methadone users to and from their dosing…60 Million last year. Source-Bangor PD
Correct. The whole process is a joke and would be laughable if it wasn’t true and one of the main reasons are community is being negatively effected by serious crime and violence. There are so many layers of expense to the methadone approach it is almost endless. The trickle down effect overall isn’t good. And the worst part is that todays youth know they can go out, shoot some heroin, coke, pills, almost at the point like mom and dad in many cases and then when the money, “coolness”, and authorities come crashing in, they can throw in the towel and start car pooling with family and friends to get to Bangor to go dose, basically forever. Then they can submit whatever garbage mileage expense reports that are so large they equate to most of the incomes in Maine.
The most pathetic is that is all coming out of our pocket, one way or the other, not only the 1% but just the working responsible blue collar Joe is paying for it. If not directly from their paycheck, through cuits to other programs that would be around if the Junkies didn’t have priority.
Getting rid of the DUI tests in t=some of these towns? Sad, Sad news.
Add a surcharge to all fines levied on those pleading to or convicted of OUI and/or raise the costs of the DEEP program and use those funds to purchase and maintain machines that the Department of Public Safety wants to remove.
Those are money making machines. I don’t see why the towns don’t just buy their own. It’s just a cost of doing business.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Lousy way to save money. An hour’s drive from Rangley to Farmington…give an extra hour for the driver’s blood alcohol to drop. (For the body to metabolize the alcohol in one drink.)
wait a minute..didn’t the Portland Police Department just get an armored vehicle for like $270,000?
Yup! but it didn’t include a drunk testing machine!
so there is money in the budget for a useless riot proof oppression machine, but no money to help prosecute the common/dangerous problem of drunk driving. God bless America..where the police are about protecting the rich and the status quo, not the safety of the people.
Portland is a bastion of liberal insanity, oppression to protect the rich is the last thing that orwellian city would do.
Use your brain, do not subscribe to the vomit spewed forth by the master architect of class warfare in the white house.
prick
Hardly a temperate remark. Go have another drink and if you like yours served over vomit, invite LePew to share it with you.
Or, if you work, why not donate a little extra to the State on next year’s tax return.
Yes, lets make our roads less safe to save $20,000.
I am sure a computer glitch will misplace that extra money pretty quick.
I worked as a mental health worker for many years. I donated enough to the state. They had days off with out pay. They had 42 minute un paid lunch breaks. We worked on shutdown days which meant we didn’t get paid for that either. What more do you think I should donate?
Got a spare drunk testing machine?
42 minute UNPAID lunch?!? The NERVE!
Outstanding sacrifice.//sarcasm off\
Morris is gonna cut the one that the State Police train on ? Then someone please tell me where the State Police, and the Department’s that send their people there, are supposed to train on this ? Once this machine is removed Maine is no longer going to have a standardized Intoxylizer to train on. That means that Maine’s cop’s are now going to have to train on any machine that’s handy. That means that the training is now going to be open to question as far as accuracy, and reliability. That means that any OUI test’s are now open to question as far as standardized training, and legal sufficiency, goes. Been there and seen the result’s 1st hand. Folk’s this is not pretty and what’s worse is that the ‘Booze Box’ Program is a key part of getting any Federal Highway Safety money from the Fed’s for highway repair and maintenance. Morris want’s to cut the box’s out there to save money ? I just can’t wait to hear the DOT Commissioner’s take on this when he finds out that the DPS Commissioner just shot him in his collective ‘keester’ for a few buck’s ! Shade’s of Cheney and his hunting buddy !
Fine and while he’s at it he might as well start adding up the cost of the increased number of OUI fatalities that are coming. And the increased number of ER visit’s for these victim’s. And the increase we ALL are gonna see on our collective car insurance bill’s when the premium’s come due. If Morris thinks he’s saving money, he’s kidding himself. The insurance industry takes very seriously the drunk driving program’s that the State’s, down to the local level, use to fight this. And while it may be illegal to do so, ‘red-lining’ as it’s called, is still used by these insurance company’s to identify those area’s, from State-wide to the local level, that are showing increase’s in OUI arrest’s and accident’s that they have to payout claims on. Just because ‘red-lining’ can’t be used to identify group’s for rate setting, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be used to identify those area’s that are showing an increase in payout’s. Like it or not, Morris has just told the insurance company’s that they can now start planning on their next round of rate increase’s. And this is gonna save Maine money ? Like the man from Missouri said, ‘Show me’.
Judging from the wisdom in this whole deal the training would be held in Rangely.
Morris is just a mouth piece for LePage. I mean really, appointing a police chief, from a very small city, with a naval background as Public safety Commissioner. His only qualifications were that he was a cohort of LePages from way back. It makes no sense at all to cut the training intoxilyzer…dumb move.
Morris is just that, his qualifications for that job are zero, so he was a police chief, so what? Political payback is what he got. Naval background? Someone should check as to exactly what he did but get promoted by butt kissing.
Er uh…one was the former mayor of Waterville, the other the police chief…hmmm. Cozy, eh?
Sort of like the old, “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
How do you train on a Drunkometer!
The First parts easy!
LOL
There are incredibly strict and detailed requirement’s for this training. I know since I’ve done them, with the help of both the local US Attorney’s office in Virginia and the local Community College student’s in their criminal justice program, And the training requirement’s are strict since they need to stand up to the scrutiny of the Court’s since the presumption of innocence is always on the defendent as well as the necesary safety precaution’s for the instructor’s test subject’s and assistant’s. That’s why the ‘bar’ (no pun intended) is set so high as far as training, safety, procedure and process goes. But using the excuse that the budget needs to be cut and the lack of use is the reason is one VERY small step away from a joke. And Morris should know that. And shortly the local OUI defense attorney’s are gonna know it too.
I trained in the 70’s Bar Hopping the Old Port and OOB,
I quit,It got to expensive!
Save money by getting DA’s and Judges who will actually prosecute OUI’s. The OUI system in Maine is a joke. Equipment and tremendous man hours to stop drunk driving only to have it thrown out by a sad pathetic legal system.
Have you people notice that curve signs an information sign an speed limit signs are be covered by brush an tree limbs an when the state person in charge of that’s signs called me back. He told me that they have no money to have people go out an cut the brush an tree limbs an i asked him is that because of budgets cut an he said yes. So as you can see people can get out of speeding tickets if they are in the right place . So this is what you get when you want the state to cut cut cut .
Maybe the guys sleeping in the DOT trucks could be “asked real nicely” to go trim the brush.
You are so funny nice lie
I’ve seen it.
I just love you guys who complain about the guy on his second shift that you saw pulled over to the side of the road dozed off , would you rather them fall asleep coming at you on the highway with the snowplow blade aimed at your compact car?
Get a Life!
I understand that creative padding of time is common in government “service”, but this was in the summer so I doubt that he was plowing snow on his second shift. However given what goes on in Maine government and the lack of accountability, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how it was accounted for.
So would you rather he come at you passed out from heat stroke with the Tar Truck rather than cooling his body temperature down to a safe level?
If you never really worked for a living how could you know why he was in the truck resting?LOL
Keep fishing, you’ll never come up with a reasonable explanation. Never really worked for a living? You have me confused with one of the drones in public “service”. I’ve actually had to produce something in return for my paycheck.
This is one more example of what happens when one level of government, in this instance the State, makes budget cuts. Directly or indirectly, a cost is still passed on to taxpayers at the bottom end of the food chain.
Also, it is worthwhile noting the irony of this decision. The State is relying on a federal grant to purchase new blood-alcohol testing equipment. On several previous occasions the governor has attributed a negative impact on Maine’s budget and a corresponding reduction or loss of services to federal cuts. At the same time, as a very conservative Republican, LePage is critical of the federal government’s spending.
Furthermore, LePage is freezing bond money that was approved by Maine voters for projects throughout the State, which allocation of money is a grant to the recipients. Many of these activities are eligible for federal matching funds that are multiple times more than Maine’s contribution. Most, if not all, will benefit the local economies in the short and/or long term.
The issue for LePage isn’t necesarily spending money, it is really whether or not he supports the purpose of the expenditure.
It’s THE FEDS who are cutting the funding…Not the state…Obuma needs it for the record number now on foodstamps…
You mean the folks who no longer have jobs because the GOP created tax havens for corporations allowing them to freely outsource manufacturing? You know, like good old Ron Reagan, Mitt’s hero.
Wasn’t it Clinton that championed the free trade agreement?
Yes it was, good comment.
Wrong!
Watch something other than FOX!
Shhh…don’t confuse them with facts, dlbrt. It’s not something they deal with on a regular basis.
I will have you know that I do not watch FOX, I watch CNN so that I can laugh at comments such as yours.
It was a good comment, but it was wrong at the basic level. Read the “executive memorandum” I’ve provided a link to if you want. It all started with NAFTA, which was Reagans.
Read My Lips!!!!!!!!!!!
George Bush and the Republicans!
It was a done deal except for the signing when Clinton Came to Town!
If you only listen to the right you will forever be in the dark!
It was.
It’s no wonder todays youth take no responsibility for anything. Even the leader of the free world for 3.5 years now still blames the mess of the country on the past. What a role model we have there. Is this why his party elected him. “I’m Barack Obama, I can’t fix what GW did the next four years but if you elect me we can hope that the changes he made will pull us out of recession” But for heavens sake, don’t count on me”. I guess GW was just to smart for him. We always knew that anyway.
For once, just once, would some politcal leader or role model for our kids say “I can fix this, this was my fault, I can do better” Other than Tim Tebow.
Wouldn’t that be refreshing as a country.
Look I’ll start. “I can do better, I can be a better speller, I can read more, I can try to see things from the other angle and work on compromise, I can champion a cause (like getting rid of the methadone clinics) we can do this if we join together. C’mon Dems, let’s cross party lines. You see it my way and I will see it yours. LEt’s meet in the middle for the sake of our children. Who’s with ME?
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Pin drop.
He said Yes We Can!
Not Yes I Can!
Then in 2010 the Loonies Came to Washington and screwed us all!
Reagan enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1980 between the US, Canada, and Mexico. His vision and that of The Heritage foundation was to use it as a first step to supposedly create US jobs and financial security. I’ll provide a link to the memorandum on it. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1993/11/em371-the-north-american-free-trade-agreement So as you can see it goes way back, and was most likely the beginning of our economic downward spiral.
Ok, let’s start a list. Feds should pay for the Army and OUI machines. Anything else?
Yes! Let them pay the salary of Gov. LePew. I’m sick of supporting him and watching him destroy my state.
This is typically short-sighted thinking that will cost more in the long run. More drunk drivers without a means of detection means more accidents, deaths, lives ruined. So much for “to serve and protect. “
Hey, I see those machines all the time at different bars around town. Those cant be more than a couple hundred bucks.
If you have four department utilizing one intoxilyzer and they only do so 17 times over the course of a year it is pretty clear that you either 1.) don’t have an OUI problem or 2.) your are not aggressively enforcing OUI laws.
Rangley has a 3 member department which should be producing over 17 OUI’s per year alone. It doesn’t make sense to keep paying for a piece of equipment that no one is using. Tough times require tough decisions. Instead of questioning Commissioner Morris, Chief Leahy should probably be questioning his own officers about their patrol practices.
Maybe there arn’t that many drunks on the road in Rangley! You see, the cops are doing their job! Don’t they call that abatement?
Figures coming from you. There is, even though you may question it, some professionals like Leahy out there that are not troopers, Leahy’s department may just be doing a great job at preventing OUI’s. The smurfs called the SP could use some education. Morris is exhibiting signs of alzheimers.
Troop, the average Mainer is not going to buy your argument. Yes, maybe it doesn’t make sense…but this “tough decision” is just a thinly disguised bit of cost shifting. LePew is good at that and this bit about Leahy isn’t going to fly, either. Tough times require a smart governor and just because our governor is too stupid to balance a budget, that is no excuse for trying to blame the local hard-working police departments.
Hey! You want Tax Cuts!
This is what you get!
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!
Whaaat? You mean we can’t have it both ways, Dlbrt? ‘Magine that. Next thing you know, we’ll find find out There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Beer, either.
Another LePage hard stand spew and back off. Nice work, Mr. Morris. You remind me of your boss.
Cut Morris, all he does is hamper operations, train a monkey and you got it covered, and you can save the bucks this guy gets.
Morris makes so much sense in this story. “We are doing this to save money,” Morris said.
And, “Morris said he did not know how much the state would save by reducing the number of Intoxilyzer sites.” Pretty typical of this administration. No facts, no figures, just arbitrary cuts. How many we gonna cut guvna? The “magic eight ball” says, a dozen should do. And how much will we save? The “magic eight ball” says, ask again later.
how do they calibrate for accuracy??
sit around and drink beer and blow into it?
The federal govt is too busy sending our money to Pakistan, Somalia, and Israel to help us Americans
This is a State Proposal, your governor LaPudge that is doing this cutting.
this is rediculous, and retarded… what are you people thinking? removing valuable equipment like this is deplorable.. why don’t you cut your paycheck, and give that back to the state? I know I can’t because I work for the state and I have’nt seen a cost of living increase in over 4 years! and I just got told it’d be another 2 years.. I’m sick and tired of the “inaccuracies” of maines beaurocrats..
tossing money around to make the numbers look good.. numbers don’t look good idiots.. they’re either right or wrong. no two ways about it.. you either need to fire your account managers, or hire new accountants that can count to 20 with their shoes on..
pulling crap like this is only “ENDANGERING THE PUBLIC!” these are the people you have sworn your career & life to help protect, and serve, and now you are placing people at risk because it’ll save some money… hell if that machine saves one life it’s worth the 9-12 thousand per year… I know my aunt died due to a drunk driver, and I wish to god I could have known her, but she was taken from use when I was 3 years old.
Now maybe that dreaded ride from the bars in Rangeley, back to your cabin in Oquossic (sp) won’t be as stressfull….
Morris is beginning to show signs of Alzheimers.
I believe the new name for it, as applied to LePew minions, is Lepageheimers.
STUPID STUPID STUPID.
DUI’s are a serious safety threat for evry driver. Geting then off the road, permaently should be a high priority.
I will go ahead and repost my comment seeing how the immature police are out today. My previous comment read:
The state could save money by cutting LePage.
Go ahead flag it fools, I will repost it.
Flag it? H_ll, we should MAKE a flag with that comment on it and mount it on the Blaine House.
LOL I hope we have a company in Maine left to do this, otherwise it is going to take a while to order it and get it shipped back!
There will be plenty of incidental costs that will be shifted to the public aka the taxpayer. The budget cuts that will result in this additional tax are coming from a member of the Republican administration. Isn’t this the same administration that claims to be against levying higher taxes? A tax is a tax is a tax. Even ones that are the negative result of another action are still taxes. We voters will remember same at the polls.
It’s more of the LePew shell game in action, for sure. “Penny wise and pound foolish,” they used to say, and we, the property taxpayers will be paying more pounds.
Just think about the effects of this shell game. Once the income tax is reduced and the burden is shifted to property tax, then the soliciting for business begins, with property tax breaks for them if they move to town, further shifting the burden to the average joe wage earner!
All in the name of “Job Creators” !
If this where 1776 the term ” Slave Masters ” would have been used!
If only his supporters were smart enough to read the writing on the wall. It won’t even be a “tiff” sell for him to set it up, since he’s already sold them a huge bill of goods. The property tax payers amongst us may need to think about just getting the _ell out of Dodge.
If the State of Maine wants to save money they should be looking at something that is proven to work. Save over a 1/3 of your gasoline expense Gov. LePage!! Don’t put more drunk drivers on the road to save money. What are you stupid?
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