Five minutes and 36 seconds is too long.

That's the amount of time an emergency dispatcher in Somerset County spent on hold one afternoon in late February. The dispatcher had called the Central Maine Regional Commune-ications Center in Augusta to request that a warden be sent to a snowmobile accident in The Forks.

But instead of responding, the Augusta call-taker punched the hold button and handled two other calls. Finally, another staffer at the Augusta center picked up the call and took the relevant information about the accident.

That kind of delay is not acceptable. Under the wrong conditions, it could mean the difference between life or death.

Clifford Wells, director of the Consolidated Emergency Communi-cations Bureau, which includes the regional communications center in Augusta as well as centers in Houlton, Gray and Orono, refused to discuss the incident except to say that the delay had been dealt with internally.

That's neither an adequate nor a reassuring answer, since it gives no details and offers no accountability.

The five-and-a-half minute delay was, apparently, not an isolated incident. According to Somerset County Commissioner Phil Roy, delays on emergency calls to the Augusta communications center happen often and "this accident call is just the tip of the iceberg."

Even accounting for Roy's frequent use of hyperbole, that's unsettling.

The trouble all started when the state directed that municipalities consolidate dispatch services.

That directive was aimed at saving money, as fewer centers meant less equipment and software would be needed statewide to run the 911 system.

Many towns and even counties balked at the idea. Like foes of consolidation in other arenas, opponents predicted a loss of local responsiveness and control.

In this case, they may have been right.

It does nothing for those promoting the virtues of consolidation to have such a poor showing in consolidated emergency service. Evidently, the Augusta center was understaffed at the time the February emergency call was placed on hold, but communications bureau director Wells says that even when he's up to full staffing level, that may not be enough.

"I would like more," he told reporter Alan Crowell.

So would we -- more reassurance that the state has an adequate number of people answering emergency calls and more reassurance that those calls have been handled well.

Emergency response is one of government's most crucial functions, and Maine needs to get this right.