Dig Now, Vote Later

Ambulance service in the River Valley is about to get a lot more expensive. The Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance Service (better known as Med-Care) wants a new building in Mexico to house its fleet--and wants it now. It is so eager to get going that it wants member towns to accelerate voter ratification of a new ten-year extension to the inter-local agreement that first went into effect in 1988. The current renewal is set to expire on June 7.

"It is certainly not our intention of trying to underhandedly break ground prior to all eleven towns affirming their desire to continue to have their emergency medical services needs delivered through NORAS," states Board President Stephen Brown in a December letter to the Peru Selectmen, before adding the caveat "however." Brown goes on to explain that any delay would add to the cost of the project and that, in any case, all eleven towns "will most likely be instructed by their voters to renew."

That perception of voter unanimity was shattered last Saturday when the Town of Andover voted not to renew at its annual town meeting. Undoubtedly the $2 million price tag for the new building loomed large in voters' minds, along with the 30 years of debt service to pay for it. But at a follow-up hearing three days later, Med-Care Director Dean Milligan reminded Andover residents that they are still on the hook for their share of the capital project anyway. The vote to renew the agreement is not the same as a vote to proceed with the project.

The NORAS Board, it turns out, does not need voter approval to borrow for a capital project. According to the inter-local agreement, "the Board shall have all necessary and incidental powers granted to directors of non-capital stock corporations under Title 13-B" of the Maine Statutes. And right there in Title 13-B, Chapter 2, Section 202 it says such a corporation has the power "to make contracts and incur liabilities, borrow money on such terms and conditions as it may determine, issue its notes and bonds and other obligations and secure any of its obligations by mortgage, pledge or other encumbrance of all or any part of its property, franchises and income." The inter-local agreement does stipulate that a debt obligation requires a two-thirds vote of the Board.

Despite the Board President's protestation, this seems to be a gun-to-head proposition for voters. The debt obligation practically forces the towns to renew. Peru residents may be reminded of the infamous inter-local agreement with Mexico and Dixfield 30 years ago for the construction of the wastewater treatment plant in Mexico that was to service all three towns. When grant money for the project dried up, Peru pulled out, but still got billed for many years for its share of the plant construction. In the bargain, Peru got to keep its effluent.

Perhaps Peruvians were hoping to avoid a repeat of that fiasco by voting affirmatively for renewal of the ambulance agreement in a December 10 referendum. Missing from the warrant article was any financial disclosure that Peru's monthly assessment for Med-Care service is due to jump by nearly 27% when the new fiscal year begins July 1. Nor was there any disclosure as to what kind of interest rate NORAS is likely to get. The municipal bond market is a tough place to shop merchandise these days.