PARIS — For a second time Monday, selectmen took the possibility of eliminating the Paris Police Department off the table.

Selectmen voted 4-1 not to hold a special town referendum where Paris residents would be asked whether the town should enter a contract with the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office for police coverage, thereby shutting down the town’s police department.

Monday’s meeting was preceded with an hour-long executive session wherein selectmen discussed the proposed coverage contract with Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant and Oxford County Administrator Scott Cole.

The Sheriff’s Office draft, provided to the town Feb. 11, would cost the town $638,480 for the first year and $495,328 for years two and three — a $90,000 savings from the proposed $585,000 Paris police budget for 2013.

If the Paris Police Department cost the town $585,000 for the next three years, the Sheriff’s Office proposal would have saved the town an average of $42,000 during the first three years. Afterward, according to the contract, the price could rise up to 2 percent per year, but no more.

The contract would have replaced the Paris Police Department with the equivalent of six full-time deputies.

Several residents spoke against disbanding the Paris Police Department. Jason Long said he understood the need to be frugal but said it was hard to place a dollar amount on local control and police who have patrolled the town for years. “Frugality is about value, not just what’s cheaper,” he said.

The idea of local control came up often. The only resident who spoke in support of moving to the Sheriff’s Office was Rick Little, who said the police department had been underfunded and was unaffordable. He said the department had a car without an inspection sticker for several months because it couldn’t afford the necessary repair work. He said deputies were better trained than Paris police. Three officers didn’t have academy training.

The assertion that there was a car without an inspection sticker was rebuffed by Willie Buffington, who owns Willie’s Repair Shop and works on the Paris Police Department’s cars.

Before voting on whether to send the question to a town referendum, Vice-Chairman Robert Kirchherr said that if the board voted yes, it shouldn’t be interpreted as an endorsement of the plan.

“What we’re talking about is accepting the wording of the contract that has been negotiated between the board and the sheriff and presenting it to the public so they can decide if they want to proceed with this. We’re not making a commitment to proceeding with this.”

Selectman Gerald Kilgore agreed. “This would be the only fair way,” he said. He said the people, not the board, would decide who would provide police coverage.

Selectman Ryan Lorrain said that nearly all the comments he’d heard were in support of keeping the police department. He said the idea could be costly in the long term, and compared the loss of control with the school department. “At the end of the day, we get a bill from the school department saying, ‘This is what we have to pay.’”

He said the current contract was great, but said the long-term outlook was harder to discern.

In the end, four out of five selectmen voted against sending the question to a public referendum, with only Kirchherr voting yes.

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