Franklin County commissioners set aside a request from the town to let the public use the Church Street parking lot.

According to green and white signs, the Church Street lot is reserved for county employees.

Farmington Town Manager Dick Davis asked commissioners to consider making the employee lot public because of the downtown parking crunch and because a new restaurant may be opening on Church Street. In exchange, the town would maintain it free during the winter and build a sidewalk between the lot and the street. He said the town might also impose time limits, such as two-hour parking.

Davis suggested county employees park at another county lot farther away from the courthouse on Anson Street.

County clerk Julie Magoon said the lot is open to the public whenever county offices are closed.

Several more spaces will be lost this summer when the lot lines are repainted to meet federal disability law requirements.

When court is in session, the county needs both of its lots, she said.

Register of Probate Joyce Morton and Register of Deeds Susan Black agreed with Magoon and said county employees and prisoners going to court shouldn’t have to walk down from Main Street.

“Taking our parking spaces isn’t even going to put a dent in the downtown parking problem,” Magoon pointed out.

Action on Davis’ letter was tabled.

Farmington: Courthouse to piggyback online

Department heads working out of the county courthouse are looking to save money in the long run by piggybacking onto one DSL account.

Currently, three departments all based out of the county courthouse have individual dial-up accounts to get online, each costing $20 a month.

Using a dial-up connection is slow, said Register of Deeds Susan Black, and the line only allows for one user at a time. More lines are going to be needed in the next few months, she said.

Black and county clerk Julie Magoon suggested the courthouse gets one DSL line for $49.95 a month.

Black said she wants to set it up so people can do more record-searching online. She has $4,000 in her budget for the software and licensing fees that allow the public to view the records.

It would also cost $1,650 to install a firewall that would keep online records secure. Maintenance of the system would be around $155 a year.

Several users already get an index of records online and then order what they need and Black and her staff fax the records to them and bill them once monthly.

With the new system, which is used by Androscoggin and Penobscot counties, people would be able to search and buy records online.

Ceiling fix-up bid awarded

FARMINGTON – Commissioners awarded a bid to fix the ceiling in the furnace room of the courthouse basement to Troll Valley Construction of Farmington.

Troll Valley’s estimate of $2,425 beat out Farmington Construction’s bid of $2,684. The winning bid was nearly $400 cheaper than the $2,800 the county has budgeted.

“It’s starting to come down in chunks already,” county clerk Julie Magoon said of the plaster ceiling. As far as she knows, there is no asbestos in the ceiling, Magoon said.

That renovation should take around two weeks and start this week or next.

Junkyard permit approved

MADRID TOWNSHIP – A permit was renewed Tuesday by Franklin County Commissioners for Madeline Haines of Madrid Township to continue operation of her automobile graveyard/junkyard.

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