AUGUSTA — FairPoint Communications is paying a $25,000 penalty for disruptions to the 911 system last month, the director of the Emergency Services Communication Bureau told his advisory board Tuesday.

Meanwhile, problems at the Penobscot Regional Communications Center apparently have been resolved, and dispatchers there are taking 911 calls after transferring them to the state facility in Orono for much of the weekend.

Although there was only a brief interruption in 911 service at the facility, which dispatches for 88 agencies in that county, the center's director criticized the multiple steps he went through to get the problem fixed.

"We're a 911 center. I don't care if the calls are being transferred and being answered, we pay for a service," said Director James Ryan. "There's a break in the system, and I think the bureau needs to address that."

FairPoint's representative to the board, Karen Romano, agreed the response was unacceptable and said the company will meet with its vendors and subcontractors to improve the process.

"FairPoint is not happy with our performance over the weekend," Romano said.

The Penobscot County 911 problems were the latest in a series of malfunctions that have affected a particular type of 911 system installed at the state's six busiest dispatch centers.

In April and May, dispatch centers in Windham and Gray encountered similar problems, although the cause was different.

The incidents prompted members of the 911 advisory board to question why the problems have been occurring and what more can be done to prevent them.

The board, composed of public safety and government officials from across the state, held its monthly meeting at the state Public Utilities Commission offices.

"Why after so many years did this stick its head up?" asked Winter Harbor Fire Chief Robert Webber, who represents the volunteer fire service on the advisory board.

"Nobody has really been able to explain the coincidence of all of these happening in a group like this, and I don't know if we ever will," said Al Gervenack, director of the Emergency Services Communication Bureau.

Romano said the equipment and the personnel maintaining it have not changed since FairPoint bought Verizon's northern New England assets this spring.

Gervenack said the state would receive a credit on its monthly service contract with the telephone company because of last month's interruption of 911 service at the Cumberland County dispatch center in Windham.

There was a delay of up to an hour to have those calls routed to a backup center.

"In this particular case, they were in violation, and we did penalize them $25,000 for the month," Gervenack said.

The state pays FairPoint about $6.45 million per year to provide 911 service at 26 public safety answering points under a five-year contract signed with FairPoint's predecessor, Verizon.

The contract standards call for acceptable service 99.99 percent of the time each month, which works out to no more than 4.8 minutes of disruption.

"Some of us aren't totally happy with the service," said Cliff Wells, emergency communications director for the state Department of Public Safety.

He said his staff had begun calling FairPoint technicians directly because they were not impressed with the responsiveness of the customer care center.

FairPoint has provided additional training to staff in those centers on handling 911 center problems, Gervenack said.

FairPoint also has agreed to install new technology that will make it easier to detect if a 911 problem has occurred and that will give dispatchers the ability to route calls to a backup center without relying on the telephone company.

Penobscot County discovered it had a problem with its 911 lines when it received a call on a business line from a Hampden dispatcher.

The dispatcher had taken a call from...