The Androscoggin County Commission rejected a $29 million bond package that would have allowed the sheriff’s office to move into the former Evergreen Subaru building on Center Street.
The vote Wednesday night was 4-3 in opposing the bond package. It remains unclear what the county’s next step will be in dealing with current sheriff’s office, which many see as inadequate.
The county purchased the former Evergreen Subaru property at 774 Center St. for $4.5 million in February 2022, using COVID relief funds with the intention of locating its new public safety building there. The 6.54-acre site is less than two miles north of the current sheriff’s office in the Androscoggin County Building at the corner of Turner and Court streets.
The main structure on the property, which includes the former Evergreen Subaru showroom and some offices, is 12,619 square feet and was built in 2005.
The plan was to turn it into a new 30,000-square-foot facility to house the sheriff’s office, administrative offices, the patrol, criminal investigation and civil divisions, and the regional communications center. The Androscoggin County Jail would remain at its current location at 40 Pleasant St.
The majority of the seven commissioners felt the nearly $30 million price tag was too high and would negatively impact property taxes in the county.
“For me it is the height of irresponsibility to the people who put me in here to make sure something like this doesn’t happen,” Commissioner Sally Christner of Turner said.
Commissioner Garrett Mason of Lisbon called the proposed project a “bridge too far,” saying that his towns of Lisbon, Sabattus and Wales cannot afford the $29 million bond package.
“It is our job to make sure that we are putting something in front of the voters that is fiscally responsible,” Mason said. “Just because you have a property doesn’t mean that it’s the right fit. Just because you bought a property doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing to do. Sometimes it just doesn’t work.”
“The intent of this building was to get part of the sheriff’s office out of the basement. That was the goal,” Mason said.
But the project evolved and changed into something he could not support, Mason said. Instead of following the layout of the Evergreen Subaru building to get staff out of the basement in the courthouse, the proposal grew into a new facility for the entire sheriff’s department, minus the jail, requiring a $29 million bond package and approval by county residents.
However, Commissioner Roland Poirier of Lewiston said failure to support the bond would be “kicking the can down the road again. “
“I think we deserve for the citizens of this county to make that decision,” Poirier said. “We have a building that is not functioning. We were told that we needed to spend $8 million to just fix the HVAC system. That’s not doing anything to correct all the other problems. . . . You won’t have a functioning building.”
Commissioner Jane Pentheny of Poland said she wanted to send the bond to the voters so they could decide.
Mason and Christner were joined by Lewiston commissioners Brian Ames and Shukri Abdirahman in opposing the bond package. Voting yes were Poirier, Pentheny and Chairman Andrew Lewis.