Rockland may withdraw from Knox County Regional Communications Center

ROCKLAND, Maine (WABI) - Rockland City Council voted to authorize an order that would allow the City Manager to withdraw from the Knox County Regional Communications Center.

The order gives the city manager the option to withdraw from the communications center with a 90 day notice.

The Rockland Fire Chief and Police Chief both spoke at a meeting Wednesday expressing concerns that staffing shortages at the communications center are negatively impacting current operations.

The City Manager says he spoke to the County Administrator about a 4 week plan to hire new staff and make improvements at KRCC.

“If they have not been very successful, and they have only hired one person or nobody then I think we will enact our 90 day notice by the end of March,” said City Manager Tom Luttrell.

“Then we would start the process of starting our own dispatch center. At that point in time I think that we need to reach out to all the communities within Knox County and give them the option to join us at the beginning of our dispatch center. Right now we are working on setting up the budget for FY26 and that would be part of the budget,” he goes on to say.

Rockland plans to have more discussions as they move forward and make their final decision.