By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — Somehow, a bill for dispatch services in 2018 was never paid; and the back debt was discovered just recently. 

The Cumberland County Finance Office (CCFO) does not have a record of having received a payment from the Town of Naples for a fiscal years’ worth of dispatch services. The bill, owed to Cumberland County Regional Communications Center, totals $27,646, according to the county’s records. 

To remedy the situation, the Naples Board of Selectmen transferred funds from the Unanticipated Funds account to pay half of the bill, which amounts to $13,823.The other half will be paid in the future. Most likely, the money to pay the remainder of the dispatch bill will be planned into next year’s 2022-23 town budget.  

On Monday, Naples Town Manager John Hawley explained how the error was discovered. He stated that the town agrees that this amount was not paid. 

“Cumberland County reached out to us and said Naples never paid our bill for 2018. We concluded that we didn’t pay that bill,” he said. 

“I was here for only half a year,” he said, explaining why he would not have a memory of that bill being paid. 

July 2018 — the beginning of the town’s fiscal year — was also Hawley’s start date as Naples town manager.

Selectman Bob Caron II pointed out the three-year delay in notifying the town of the bill.  

“They waited until 2021,” Caron said. 

Caron was referring to the copy of e-mail correspondence between the county and the town’s finance departments that was dated July 2021.   

Hawley mentioned how he and the town finance director had gone over the records, trying to determine how this happened. He said they will continue to review the account records to see how or why it was overlooked. 

The solution — to pay half the bill as soon as possible — required a vote by the board. 

“I paid half the bill from the unanticipated account. There aren’t enough funds to pay that whole year budget,” Hawley said. “In theory, we already budgeted for it, we didn’t spend it, and it went back into fund balance.”

The vote, 4-0, was to pay half of the bill from Unanticipated Funds account.

Selectman Ted Shane attended via Zoom from New Gloucester while in-person at the Naples Town Hall were Caron, Colin Brackett and Jim Grattelo.