ALFRED — As officials in rural York County digested news that seven fewer deputies will be patrolling their towns, York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette and Maine State Police Lt. Louis Nyitray say they’ve worked out a fix ”“ at least in the short-term.

York County government laid off 24 workers Monday. With a retirement and a recent vacancy, it means 26 fewer people will be providing service to York County residents in the district attorney’s office, registries of deeds and probate, the finance department and the sheriff’s office.

Ouellette met with Nyitray Tuesday afternoon, hammering out a plan that will provide coverage to the 14 rural communities ”“ with most attention devoted to life-threatening and emergency calls. Other calls, like complaints of a damaged mailbox or squealing tires might have to wait a bit, said Ouellette. The six-member detective division is down to three and those officers will also provide patrol service, he said.

“We’ll tell the towns that with what we’ve worked out with the state police we will make every attempt to handle the calls that come in to us,” said Ouellette. “We’ll pay particular attention to emergency calls.”

For the rest, he said, “people will have to be patient.”

In Lebanon, Selectman Jason Cole, who is also assistant chief of Lebanon Rescue,  said several concerned residents attended a Tuesday morning selectmen’s meeting.

“We’re losing a third of our patrol deputies and they’re already stretched thin,” said Cole, who worked for the county as a dispatcher several years ago. “Public safety is in danger. We understand bad financial times but ”¦ It’s scary for the 14 towns.”

Cole said on Monday, the rescue squad responded to four calls between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., all requiring a police presence. He said he’s aware that rural towns must sometimes wait for police coverage, but that it took a trooper an hour to respond to one of the incidents.

Ouellette and Nyitray said schedules have been re-worked so coverage will be provided 24-hours a day, seven days week, even though the sheriff’s office has seven fewer deputies and Maine State Police Troop A, assigned to have three sergeants and 18 troopers,  is temporarily down four troopers due to illness and assignments elsewhere, Nyitray said. As well, part of the troop’s duties include patrolling Interstate 295 from Portland to Brunswick.

“When we were both fully staffed, we could handle a number of calls simultaneously,” said Nyitray. “Now that may not be possible. We’ll have to prioritize.”

Of the 15 remaining patrol deputies and detectives, four are dedicated elsewhere ”“ two are contract deputies whose salaries are paid by Arundel and Waterboro, while two others are a school resource officer paid by MSAD 57 and a domestic violence investigator paid for through a grant, respectively, leaving 11 to patrol the 14 rural towns and investigate crime.

Register of Deeds Debra Anderson lost seven employees, leaving a staff of four along with Anderson and deputy register Claude Dube. 

“We’ve lost two-thirds of our crew. We’ll try as hard as we can to meet every obligation,” said Anderson. “We are public servants and we’re here to do that duty, it will be very hard with not enough people.”

Anderson said telling employees they were laid off was difficult. Some workers in the deeds registry, as in the probate registry, have worked for York County for more than 20 years.

Probate register Carol Lovejoy said she and her deputy register Anne Lavalley plus two others will now divvy-up the work previously done by seven people. 

“We’ll do the best we can,” said Lovejoy. “The will be delays and slower processing times.”

Lovejoy said probate court, a component of the registry, is already booking three months ahead with court held two days a week. She said she’ll discuss with Probate Judge Donna Bailey whether to reduce court to one day a week in January.

County officials have blamed the jail consolidation law for the county’s fiscal troubles. That law means the county can no longer use jail revenues to offset other county expenses. Coupled with health insurance premium increases and contracted raises, the jail law means a shortfall going forward of $1.3 million, County Manager Richard Brown has said.

Back in the rural communities, police patrol was on the minds of selectmen.

Parsonsfield Selectman Dan Flint said he’s concerned that as the sheriff’s office has to put more deputies on the road, leaving fewer detectives, there will be fewer personnel available to track drug problems.

“There will be less time on prevention and investigation,” he said.

Parsonsfield was poised to hire a contract deputy pending federal stimulus funding and other towns had mulled the question ”“ some rejecting the proposal that came after town budgets had already been voted ”“ but in the end, there was no funding.

Ouellette said none of the 16 Maine sheriff’s offices or the Maine State Police received federal funding. He has contacted the offices of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree to see if any federal funds might be freed-up.

In Shapleigh, Selectwoman Ruth Ham said losing too many deputies “is not a good thing.” Ham said she admired how Goodall Hospital handled a budget shortfall ”“ through salary cuts across the board, from administration on down.

“They’re a terrific model for the county,” said Ham.

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.