On November 2, Pellerin said the county would be receiving $186,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to repair the damage caused by the flooding last month.

In this week's meeting Pellerin brought the bad news that the county would not be receiving anything from FEMA to help the towns that received damage to their roads.

"I am disheartened to say there will be no money coming to the county from FEMA because the state fell below the threshold for federal disaster assistance," Pellerin said. Although Lincoln County met their threshold, many other counties in the state did not receive the amount of damage Lincoln County did."

The news came in the form of an e-mail from Lynette Miller at the Maine Emergency Management Agency: "Unfortunately, the assessments that came in are less than the original estimates, dropping the state under the threshold for requesting federal disaster assistance. The Maine Department of Transportation-owned dam in Newcastle was assessed at far under the original estimate as well. That was the primary reason for the state as a whole dropping below the threshold."Towns in Lincoln County that reported damaged included: Edgecomb, $24,000; Boothbay, $14,000; Wiscasset $41,000; Bristol, $8,000; Wiscasset Water District, $2,000; Nobleboro, $9,000; Waldoboro, $10,000; Summerville, $39,000; Alna $4,000; Bremen, $9,000; Dresden, $20,000 and Monhegan, Island $3,000.

"I know this will leave a number of communities with substantial damage that it will be a hardship to repair," Miller said.

She said in the last legislative session, a Maine Disaster Trust Fund was created, but not funded.

"The next step is to obtain funding," she said. "This experience is a perfect example of when a state disaster assistance program could and should be used."

Pellerin told the commissioners he was going to encourage town officials to write to their representatives in support of this Maine trust fund. Public Hearing

The commissioners held a public hearing on the county budget that had been rescheduled from October 25, due to weather conditions.

They received public comment from Boyce Brewer who questioned the need of the Sheriff's Department to purchase four rifles at a cost of over $7,000.

Apparently, the cost of the rifles had been reported incorrectly because the rifles cost $450 each.

Brewer said there had been two accidents recently and the traffic was held up because the Sheriff's Department only had one camera.

Sheriff Todd Brackett said he has budgeted for additional cameras in this year's budget. Also he was not optimistic the rifles would be approved by the commissioners.

County Administrator's Report

County Administrator James McMahan will hold a meeting to discuss the Universal Waste issues relating to the management of the waste.

McMahan told the commissioners he was working on the revised job descriptions of the county employees and was waiting for further information before they could be completed.

The commissioners authorized the administrator to work with the department heads in developing a standard time sheet for all county employees.

Abatement Policy Adopted

The commissioners returned an abatement application because it was incomplete.

Commissioner Kenneth Honey suggested having the clerk return any incomplete applications to the applicant, instead of holding them for a week or two, then being sent back.

A motion was made to adopt the policy, instructing the clerk that any abatement applications received that do not have all the questions answered are to be returned to the sender.

The servicing of county vehicles contract was awarded to Hillside Auto repair for another year.

Sheriff's Report

The daily inmate count at the county jail, as of Tuesday, November 15, was 60.

Twenty-one inmates are being boarded out in other facilities; six males on furlough, and two on electronic monitor.

The jail work crew is looking for inside work with non-profit organizations during the winter months.

Any group that would like the assistance of the work crew is asked to call Eleanor Grover at 882-7332 extension 171.