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siebzy t1_j6eb9qz wrote

Reply to comment by IamSauerKraut in Say good-bye to Dennysville: de-organization under consideration by IamSauerKraut

Is it not duplicative for both Dennysville and the County to spend money maintaining law enforcement infrastructure (dispatch, admin, etc) to cover overlapping areas? Is it not duplicative for the town to have its own code enforcement officer when the county already has the capacity to take that over?

This argument in favor of local control ignores obvious efficiencies of scale, and makes "taxpayer control" more of an issue than "crushing property tax bills".

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IamSauerKraut OP t1_j6efxlc wrote

>This argument in favor of local control ignores obvious efficiencies of scale

An argument often made by failed politicians and now-unemployed corporate managers.

btw, does Dennysville have its own police department? oh. well, so much for all that verbiage.

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siebzy t1_j6es612 wrote

Which failed politicians. Which unemployed corporate managers.

If you've got them, name names. Otherwise you're just whining about change like your average Abe Simpson.

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IamSauerKraut OP t1_j6g71dv wrote

>does Dennysville have its own police department? oh. well, so much for all that verbiage.

Avoiding a pertinent question?

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siebzy t1_j6hqhu1 wrote

How does it benefit the Dennysville resident to pay for a town office that's only open one afternoon a week? They have to go to Pembroke most of the time anyway. Why not share the costs between all residents of those towns equally and provide better service?

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IamSauerKraut OP t1_j6hxtca wrote

No guarantee that sharing costs will provide better service.

As for the town office, if it is only open one day a week then that is probably done to reduce costs (no lights on; no high electric bill). As best as I can determine, there is no mortgage on the building so keeping it closed 6 days a week, if that is what they do, reduces the cost to townspeople.

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BracedRhombus t1_j6f2bti wrote

There is no local law enforcement or dispatch, either the County or the State provides it.

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siebzy t1_j6g2ql2 wrote

Then what does the town government do that couldn't be done at the county or state level, cheaper?

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Existing_Bat1939 t1_j6im4jo wrote

If you think Washington County has the capacity to take over code enforcement you must never have been there. In reality land use regulation would fall to a state agency named LURC, and trust me, no one likes LURC. There would be no "code enforcement" because Maine lacks a statewide building code so without a municipal government there would be no code to enforce.

We're discussing a municipality that runs on the Town Meeting/ Selectmen form of government, which is essentially pure Athenian democracy (including public debate of ordinances and the town budget by the citizenry in open meeting) and they elect a handful of people to sign checks.

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