Too expensive for town officials to justify, Naples will shut down its dispatch center.

Four full-time dispatchers and one part-time dispatcher will lose their jobs.

The dispatch center opened in Naples in 1990. Previously, volunteers took calls in their homes. The center grew to cover first Casco, then Sebago, Harrison and Raymond. But since July, towns have been trickling away to pursue less expensive options.

Sebago joined Standish dispatch on July 1 and Casco selectmen voted in August to move dispatching services to the Cumberland County Regional Communications Center in Windham effective Jan. 1, 2009.

With less money coming in from other towns, Naples selectmen had to decide whether to pay more or change dispatch services.

Barbara Mastroianni is one of the dispatchers whose job is being eliminated when the dispatch center closes. A date has not yet been determined. She has worked for the town for eight years.

“It’s a joy to work with the people who are here,” Mastroianni said. “I’ll miss them.”

At a meeting Monday, Naples selectmen said they couldn’t justify the difference in cost between having their own dispatch center and hiring the county communications center. While Naples budgeted more than $106,000 for the current fiscal year for dispatch, county dispatch offered services to the town for $19,600, according to Derik Goodine, Naples town manager.

If the three towns wanted to move forward with local dispatching, Naples, Raymond and/or Harrison would have had to put in more money to replace the more than $26,000 shortfall created by Casco leaving halfway through the fiscal year.

Raymond Town Manager Don Willard said he expects the town to move to county dispatch as well, which would likely cost less than $26,000 per year, as opposed to more than $61,000 budgeted for Naples dispatch this year.

“Nobody wants to or can pay more money in this environment,” Willard said.

Scott Andrews, chairman of the Harrison Selectmen and the town’s fire chief, said his town would have to decide between Oxford County dispatch for around $6,000-$7,000 per year and Cumberland County dispatch for around $13,500 per year. Harrison budgeted $5,820 for the Naples dispatch center this year.

“We’d like to stay with Naples,” Andrews said. “They’ve done a good job at dispatching us and they know the area.”

A local dispatch center provides immediate, face-to-face attention, Mastroianni said. From working in the same building with fire and rescue staff and knowing them well, she said she understands what goes unspoken over the radio.

On Tuesday afternoon a full-time employee of the Naples fire/rescue department, Kevin Adams, came into dispatch to ask if Mastroianni had seen his sunglasses, which he left in a truck. The two joke around with each other, and after Adams left, Mastroianni said he is like one of her children.

“We’re one of the closest departments in the area,” Adams said, adding that staff and residents won’t get the same personalized service from dispatchers in Windham.

The Naples dispatch center is open to calls and walk-ins 24 hours a day, seven days a week. While dialing 911 leads callers to the Maine State Police or county dispatch, there is a non-emergency number residents call for animal control, burn permits and other business. When 911 emergencies happen in Naples, the call is transferred to the local dispatch center. Adams estimated that half the requests for help come from people who walk in to the center on Route 302.

Naples Rescue Chief Chris Burnham said the switch will be a change for residents used to stopping into the dispatch center. The building hasn’t been locked for 15-20 years, Burnham said, adding that they may put a phone in the lobby that would connect directly to county dispatch.

Local dispatchers often have knowledge about quirky addresses and individuals in town that a regional dispatch center wouldn’t have, Burnham said. But the technology available through county dispatch is superior.

“Each has some advantages and disadvantages,” Burnham said. “Obviously the money doesn’t justify it anymore.”

At Monday’s meeting, Selectman Dana Watson said some of the niceties could go away with the shift, and that they hadn’t figured out where to give out burn permits or how to allow access to the fire barn.

“It is going to be aggravating and kind of sad,” Watson said. “[But] I don’t really see any way around it.”

“Our decision is not an easy one because it involves laying off people,” said Selectman Rick Paraschak.

Paraschak said regional communications center staff told selectmen that the current dispatchers in Naples would have first priority for any new jobs created in Windham. But that would mean a longer drive for Mastroianni, who lives five minutes from her work now. She said she wasn’t sure if she would try to get a job at the county dispatch center.

“It’s a sign of the economy. It’s the sign of the times. I pay taxes too,” Burnham said.

Dispatcher Barbara Mastroianni answers a call at the Naples dispatch center Tuesday. She is one of four full-time dispatchers who will be laid off when the dispatch center is closed.