Lincoln County commissioners approved buying a computer server that will tell the state and dispatch more about who is accessing the databases.

Officials have said that until now, anyone who accessed a state database from any of the county’s police departments or the Sheriff’s Office appeared to come from the same computer. This caused problems this spring for local departments who were shut out of the server and had to buy access to it. Towns, which had not budgeted for the expense, had to pull funding from reserve accounts or other sources to have access to the databases their police officers needed to get information in the field.

Sheriff Todd Brackett said the Sheriff’s Office was told the remedy was a new server which could identify remote users. The commissioners approved it at $11,791 and a yearly licensing fee. The funds will come from the Sheriff’s Office’s IT reserve account.

The Sheriff’s Office also presented the purchase order for a new Dodge Durango, previously approved for $25,402.

Animal Control Officer contracts were approved for Whitefield, Wiscasset, Damariscotta, Jefferson, Bremen, and Newcastle, and the Sheriff’s Office announced the resignation of Reserve Deputy Scott Mercier, who has been recalled to active duty in the military.

Mary Ellen Barnes told the commissioners about grants the Regional Planning Commission had recently been awarded. Boothbay Harbor received $29,500 for a fish pier and Monhegan received $30,000 for several projects. The county also received a $40,000 ConnectME Broadband Planning grant. Some of it will be held in escrow for when the seven towns involved need funds for engineering work. About the first $7,000 will be a planning grant for Westport Island, Wiscasset, Dresden, Whitefield, Edgecomb, and Somerville, which have been underserved by high-speed broadband internet. Somerville has the least internet connectivity in the county, according to Barnes.

The Emergency Management Agency announced an agreement with Lincoln Health’s HazMat team to join the greater Lincoln County HazMat team, which will give Lincoln Health greater access to training and support services from the county and towns. EMA also announced a portable repeater is being bought for special events, and five SCBA cylinders for the HazMat team. Most of the funding for the heater and cylinders will come from Homeland Security. The operating budget will partly fund the cylinders.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will send a team of young volunteers to Lincoln County to help plan moving items such as food, water, and fuel to affected areas in a natural or other disaster. The volunteers will be working in the Emergency Command Center Aug. 6-22.

Administrator Carrie Kipfer got approval for a purchase order for a firewall for the county’s new fiber optic internet service, for $3,029.66, and approval for draft financial policies. A “safe climb” system was approved for the Huntoon Hill tower, where U.S. Cellular is doing more work to make the tower safe. An osprey nest has been moved.