Catathome of Augusta, ME tinmanmatt - you could not have said it better!!! Just don't forget to also thank former mayor Brian Rines and current Gardiner City Manager Kobrock for their hand in eliminating dispatch. I've had to call Augusta and was told by the dispatcher "yeah if I can ever get a word in I'll let the officers know". My experience tells me the dispatcher should be able to interrupt chit chat to dispatch a call. Of course there's always my relative who called 911 and was put on hold for 5 minutes while her husband was suffering chest pain, again my experience is that you NEVER put a 911 call on hold!!!! Citizens of Augusta do yourselves a favor and call the councilors voicing an opinion to keep your own dispatch. When lives are at stake opt for the better service not the cheap one with rude, uncaring people taking your calls. Augusta has very professional caring people working in the dispatch center who know the city and the citizens due to their years of experience!!report abuse

tinmanmatt of augusta, ME O and as a former dispatcher in Gardiner, tax payers in gardiner should thank the useless fire chief for doing away with the local dispatch center!!! It's pretty funny that Mark Kimball sends the dispatch center to augusta with the state and says how much money it will save for tax payers, i wonder how much more your paying for a lesser service with the state.report abuse

tinmanmatt of augusta, ME Dispatch, the worst thing that the city of augusta could do is join the state dispatch!! talking with people and friends that work for the other towns or city police, fire, and ems, that have gone to the state center have nothing good to say about it and as it says, projected to cost more in 2010. other towns have gone to it with the promise that it will cost less in the long run, then why is the dispatch center asking the PUC to allow them to increase the fee by 64%. some towns like west gardiner were paying on average 1200 a year and now they are paying in the area of $30,000 a year. we can all thank BALDY for this. tax dollars were paying for this service before and now that the state has there hands in it and tried to make all towns in kennebec county go to this dispatch, it has resulted in more local taxes going to pay for a service that if towns could have stayed with the county, gardiner, winthrop, or waterville, then they wouldn't be looking at this high fees for very poor service.

YMCA
it's a useless building, take it door, don't waste tax money on heating it, give that money that they would pay to heat it to other people that need it!!!!report abuse

Mainer in Exhile of Buford, GA The old YMCA is a dump and should be demolished. Where was the city 20 years, 10 years or even 2 years ago when the building could have possibly been saved. The lack of maintenance of is typical in the Capital City, if you pt it into a state of disrepair, sooner or later you can get a new building. I can't help but wonder, how long it wil be before Augusta wants to rebuild Cony HS.report abuse