ROCKLAND –The Knox County Commissioners at their first meeting of 2018 on January 9, in chambers at the Knox County Courthouse, reelected Carol Maines sd chairwoman and Sharyn Pohlman as vice chairman.

Ray Sisk, director of Knox Emergency Management Agency, updated councilors about a disaster declaration recently signed by President Donald Trump, concerning an October 2017 storm when the county suffered severe power outages.

Sisk said there would be an applicants briefing coming up on Monday, January 22, at 2 p.m. at the EMA office.

"This is basically an opportunity for towns looking for reimbursements to come in and find out about the process," he said. "Statewide, we had $7.4 million in damage. For Knox County we had just under $190,000 in damages from the storm. Most of that was debris and debris removal with some damage to infrastructure."

Knox County government expenses included $5,500, part of which was for a helicopter to refuel Ragged Mountain and storm-related overtime for Knox County EMA dispatch and the Sheriff's Department.

"If all those expenses are allowable, and they carry through, we get 75 percent reimbursed from the feds and 15 percent from the state, so that would leave us with a 10 percent cost share," he said.

Commissioners approved and authorized a contract between Knox County and the towns of Cushing, Thomaston, Saint George, South Thomaston, Warren and the Georges River Regional Shellfish Management Committee for shellfish services for a term from January 1, 2018 to March 30, 2018.

The Knox County Sherriff's Office provides the deputy to act as Shellfish Warden. This past year Justin Hills was the acting warden.

The original contract was set to run until June 30, 2018 and the committee asked for a shortened agreement so they might study the costs of the service.

Chief Deputy Tim Carroll said the shellfish committee has been extremely happy with Hills' performance. Revenue from written violations is up and that revenue goes directly to the committee.

Carroll said the shellfish committee wants to make the contract work.