LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen on Tuesday voted to have the Fire Department’s billing policy revised during its meeting at the Town Office.

Fire Chief Nathan Guptill said he had talked with Town Manager Carrie Castonguay and Chairman William Kenniston about it. “In Turner I set this up with Central Maine Cost Recovery LLC (in Fairfield),” he noted. “My goal is to be able to start billing for these nuisance calls, essentially OUI and that type of stuff.”

Covering those calls comes out of the Fire Department’s budget, Guptill said. “I would like to be able to set up this billing ordinance,” he noted. “My goal is to be able to start billing these calls to offset the budget.”

Guptill formerly was chief in Turner. He would like to see money collected go into this department’s reserve account.

After every call, a report from dispatch is emailed to Guptill. The value per hour for each truck and person in the department would be determined for billing purposes, he said. “A bill would be sent to Joe Public’s insurance company. They were driving drunk and blew through a telephone pole, needed five hours directing traffic,” Guptill said as an example.

Guptill shared another recent frequent occurrence where tenants fall asleep or pass out while cooking causing the smoke alarm to go off in the apartment. “Our Fire Department goes, resets the alarm,” he said. “I would like to be able to bill these people for that call because every time we get called out for that they put Jay, Livermore on standby to be able to roll in case there is actually a fire. They are wasting all these resources.”

Lots of insurance companies actually pay and a lot more towns are doing this now, Guptill said. “Central Maine Cost Recovery takes like 10%,” he noted. “It is essentially free money for the town.”

“It’s money that you have earned by being on the site,” Selectman Bruce Peary said.

“Correct,” Guptill stated. “It will offset the cost of the budget in the long run.”

“The town does have a policy on billing for fire services that was approved in 2003,” Castonguay noted. “We talked with Nathan and the officers about updating this policy to be current and put some language in it. What we are asking you to decide is how you want the billing mechanism. Do you want to use a third party agency or do you want it to come through the town?”

Selectman Jim Long suggested a third party would make it easier for the board and the department.

‘There are quite a few of these third party companies out there who would do this for us,” Guptill said. “I have used Central Maine Cost Recovery in Turner. If there is an accident they would get the police report from whoever is handling the call. They will pay for the report, take out whatever costs they have entailed, write out a report and send us a check.”

“It is not uncommon,” Kenniston said. “You see some towns billing for nonresidents.”

Guptill said he calls it the “idiot clause,” that it will be up to the officer’s judgment if something is billed. If road conditions or a medical event are involved it will not be billed, he noted.

“We will amend the policy,” Castonguay said. “We will add that language, definitions of what calls would receive billing, and the process.”