The only town on Mount Desert Island that doesn’t have its own police department is considering whether to switch the agency it relies on for police coverage — a change that some residents hope would bring faster response times but would cost the town at least 50 percent more.
Tremont has contracted with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office for several years to have regular law enforcement patrols, but residents will decide later this month whether to switch to coverage from the police department in neighboring Southwest Harbor.
Tremont residents will vote at a special town meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10.
The question voters will consider at the meeting is whether selectmen should negotiate a contract with Southwest Harbor to have up to 30 hours of law enforcement each week at a cost of $150,000 a year for three years, 2020 through 2022, said Katie Dandurand, Tremont’s town clerk. After reaching 30 hours of coverage each week, Southwest Harbor still would respond to police calls in Tremont but would charge on a per-call basis.
Tremont also has the less expensive option of renewing its contract with the sheriff’s office for 2020. That renewal would provide no more than 30 hours of law enforcement coverage each week at the cost of $64 per hour. The contract would cost, at a maximum, just shy of $100,000 for the year.
“It may be less if they work less than 30 hours” per week, Dandurand said.
In this scenario, the sheriff’s office or Maine State Police would handle calls outside the 30 hours of coverage each week. The agencies would not charge on a per-call basis as the Southwest Harbor police would, but they would likely have to send an officer to Tremont from off Mount Desert Island.
The town held a public hearing on the proposal last month, Dandurand said.
Police coverage has been a recurring topic of debate in Tremont, with a population of about 1,400, as residents have considered whether to keep their arrangement with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, contract with Southwest Harbor or even start a local police department.
Tremont is taking up the issue of police coverage months after two other coastal towns took votes on whether to disband their own local police departments and rely on county sheriff’s offices instead. Both of those towns, Gouldsboro and Thomaston, decided to keep their local police forces.
