BETHEL – Dedicated police coverage from Oxford County comes with a hefty price tag: $297,000 over and above what Bethel pays for its county tax assessment.

That was the pitch that Sheriff Lloyd C. Herrick and Chief Deputy Jim Davis made last Monday during a 45-minute presentation to selectmen and the Budget Committee.

For $297,000, the county would hire five additional deputies to cover Bethel, with one on-duty officer assigned to the town and based in the town office police station.

“The officers would be assigned here instead of being fill-ins from somewhere else, and Bethel would be billed on an actual use basis,” said Town Manager Scott Cole.

New cruisers purchased for patrol would remain property of the town of Bethel, while the chain of command would be in South Paris at the county seat, he added.

Herrick, Cole said, advised town officials that he wasn’t there to sell Bethel a service nor discourage the town from pursuing county coverage, but rather to present the town with a professional proposal.

Cole added that Herrick would make the proposal work should the town contract with the county.

However, Herrick did want a two-year commitment from the town for the contract.

Following the presentation, Bethel selectmen asked numerous questions. When asked why he wanted $36,000 in overtime wages when he’d already budgeted for five deputies, Herrick said he didn’t want to get caught short.

Going with Herrick’s proposal would mean that the town loses its local police cadre. Dispatching, however, is already provided by the county.

While Bethel’s county tax assessment for its proposed 2004 municipal budget is $170,917, up $5,807 over last year, the proposed 2004 net cost of service from the local police department is $245,344.

Bethel’s cost of staying with its police department per capita at 2,411 would be $101.76, whereas the cost per person would increase to $123.50 with Herrick’s proposal.

If town meeting voters decide to go with county coverage, funds currently appropriated for local police costs would be redirected to the county in exchange for the level of coverage provided, Cole said.

“I can see benefits to both sides, but in the long haul, dedicated county coverage would offer a police officer more if he or she was part of a larger force in terms of opportunities to expand professionally. It would also offer the opportunity to get into more specialized police work,” he added.

He believes that the downside, however, is a lack of familiarity with Bethel residents, something that doesn’t handicap the town’s local police force.

“I would also lose a little bit of fiefdom as the town manager,” Cole said.

Should selectmen decide to put Herrick’s coverage option before town meeting voters in June, they have until Friday, April 25, to file for a referendum vote on the matter.

Selectmen are slated to review Herrick’s offer at their 7 p.m. meeting, Monday, April 7, in the town office.

Then, in a joint meeting with the Budget Committee at 7 p.m. Monday, April 14, at which the proposed 2004 budget will be finalized, Selectmen will decide whether to place it before town meeting voters.

Recent resolutions of the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee triggered the study of alternative delivery of police services.