The towns of Boothbay and Edgecomb have considered combining code enforcement departments for the next fiscal year.

Under a interlocal agreement, the town of Boothbay would absorb Edgecomb's code enforcement department and provide services to residents for both towns. Boothbay would charge Edgecomb a base rate of $5,000 and collect any additional fees from plumbing inspections for the first year.

“We're just trying this out. This could fail and we reserve the right to walk away,” said Boothbay Town Manager Jim Chaousis. “But I have the feeling that after the first year, Edgecomb residents are going to like our service, and I think the Boothbay residents are going to see the reward of another revenue stream.”

Currently, Marian Anderson serves as Edgecomb's part-time code enforcement officer in addition to being the full-time town manager of Richmond. Switching code enforcement to Boothbay would not only provide Edgecomb residents with full-time service, but it would relieve Anderson of the duty, which she approves of, said Edgecomb Selectman Stuart Smith.

“I've talked with the other selectmen in the meeting about this, and they like the idea of doing this regional addition,” Smith said.

Under the agreement, Boothbay's code enforcement officers Dan Bryer and Lori Colton would work with two sets of town ordinances, but to avoid confusion, the two towns would adhere to one uniform fee schedule.

According to Chaousis, Boothbay will enjoy a reduction in the cost of code enforcement, and the town will bring in an estimated $12,000 of additional revenue. Based on the early budget projections for fiscal year 2015, there is a $13,000 increase in Boothbay's operating budget that could nearly be covered by consolidating code enforcement, Chaousis said.

After the trial year is complete, both towns' boards of selectmen will crunch numbers and assess how effective the service was before negotiating a future contract.

So far the Boothbay selectmen have been supportive of the plan, however Selectman Chuck Cunningham played devil's advocate.

“There are going to be some people out there that are going to see a negative side to this,” Cunningham said. “They're going to say that we said we needed two people in the code office, and here we are farming them out to another municipality.

“How can we afford to do that if we need them here?”

Chaousis said the need for two code enforcement officers is valid, and the town has been able to work efficiently to afford the two positions without breaking the budget.

“We have two code enforcement officers because our water district association. If we were to absorb the code enforcement of Edgecomb it would be about a 10 percent work increase by contractually delivering service to the town of Edgecomb for a fee,” Chaousis said. “So I think the town of Boothbay can do that without any addition of salary and very little addition of extra resources.”

Both boards will meet on February 26 at 6 p.m. to discuss the agreement. If the towns enter into a contract, a public vote will not be needed for a one year trial.