The Information Management Corp., known better as IMC, is not going away but is not expected to receive any more upgrades in the future, said Amanda Simoneau, deputy emergency management director.
The group has been working on a communications solution. They have looked at a couple of systems, Jay Police Chief Richard Caton IV said.
The current system has been around since the 1990s, according to commissioners. Caton said Jay had the program since 2006.
Commissioners signed an agreement with the corporation in 2011 to get the system for the Sheriff's Office and dispatchers.
“It was implemented in 2012,” Simoneau said.
Franklin County was one of the last counties to go with the IMC program.
An estimate for the CentralSquare Pro system, which is part of Information Management Corp., is $710,000, Caton said.
The county Emergency Management Agency plans to apply for a $113,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that could be used to lower the price, Simoneau said.
In addition to the grant, the towns would continue to pay maintenance fees for the program, which he estimated to be about $90,000 to $100,000. Some of the county’s unorganized territory tax-increment financing funds would lower the overall cost, Caton said.
The CentralSquare software program is more user friendly than another one they looked at for about $1.8 million, Simoneau said.
If the county decides to move forward in the future, a customized system would be built to meet the needs of Franklin County, Simoneau said.
The current system does not have a jail module to enter data in, county Lt. David Rackliffe said. The system keeps records of calls to dispatch, law enforcement, fire services and other emergency systems, he said.
Tim Hardy, county emergency management director, asked commissioners to put a placeholder in for use of about $500,000 from the town’s allotment from the American Rescue Plan Act. The county has received about $2.9 million of the $5.86 million expected.
Commissioner Lance Harvell of Farmington asked the group to submit more details of the breakdown of costs.
The new program would not be available until at least 2024.
© 2022 the Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
