AUBURN — Hoping for “cooler heads to prevail,” supporters of a legislative measure that would stop Auburn from blocking a new Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office on Center Street agreed to delay passage to give city and county officials a chance to work out their differences.

But the clock is ticking.

Garrett Mason, a former state senator and current county commissioner from Lisbon, said funding for the project must be in place by 2024 and spent by 2026 or the federal government will require the county to return the $4.5 million in pandemic relief money tapped to buy the former Evergreen Subaru site.

“It’s a use-it-or-lose-it proposition,” Mason said.

Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office officials hope to move from Turner Street in Auburn to the former Evergreen Subaru building, seen in February, on Center Street. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Between the need for new offices for the sheriff, which almost everyone agrees is necessary, and the looming deadline, Mason said officials at City Hall need to stop stonewalling and start talking seriously.

Efforts were underway Thursday to determine if officials could find enough common ground to offer hope they can resolve their differences.

If state lawmakers see little chance of success, they might swiftly push through a bill introduced by state Sen. Jeff Timberlake, a Turner Republican, that would specifically prohibit Auburn from blocking the project.

The sheriff’s office plan has remained stalled since the February 2022 purchase of the 774 Center St. site as city and county officials faced off over the location choice.

Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque and Androscoggin County Sheriff Eric Samson, the leading figures in the dispute, have both said in recent days that negotiations are needed.

But the battle between city and county has flared off and on for 16 months, with harsh words occasionally tossed around, and progress has been almost nil.

Auburn blocked the project outright for a year while it created new land use rules for government buildings like the one the county plans to have. It approved a new statute four months ago that requires the county to conduct an impact study and other steps, a measure that Samson said he can live with.

What the county is more upset about is the Auburn City Council retained the right to block the project if its land use overseers approve a government building project.

From Samson’s viewpoint, which many legislators share, the council shouldn’t be able to reject a plan that meets land use standards.

Given the need for speed in getting the county project underway, county officials said, they can’t risk going through a long land use process, securing a greenlight from planners and then finding themselves faced with a council that turns the plan down anyway.

Mason said the Legislature is nearly united in its support for Androscoggin County’s bid to move ahead with the new sheriff’s office.

“What else are we supposed to do?” Mason asked.

Two legislators endorsed Mason’s view of the situation this week but did not want to talk on the record out of concern their words might derail the opportunity to avoid a public and potentially ugly showdown on the issue. They said it would better for everyone if the city and county are able hash out their differences and come up with a solution that satisfies Samson’s needs for new quarters for his staff.

If nothing else, officials said, Timberlake’s bill ramps up the pressure on Auburn to compromise.

Timberlake’s bill, which easily prevailed in committee, was shelved this month by the State and Local Government Committee in the hope that talks this summer will make it unnecessary, Mason said. He said it’s time for “cooler heads to prevail.”

If the “very much alive” bill is needed to push the project forward, Mason added, it can be passed quickly.