FARMINGTON – Franklin County commissioners and Budget Committee members will begin review of county department requests for the 2007 budget today.

Deliberations are scheduled to occur over two days starting at 12:30 p.m. at the commissioner’s office in the courthouse.

First up is the county Emergency Management Agency’s request for $75,143, a decrease of $4,239 from this year’s budget.

Though the budget is down, the request includes an increase in the personnel services line of $8,191 to cover a 3 percent increase in wages for the director and assistant director, and an increase in weekly hours for Director Tim Hardy.

He is averaging 45 hours per week and the request asks for weekly pay for 40 hours, up from 32.5 hours per week, according to backup information in the budget booklet.

Also up for discussion today are budgets for the treasurer at 12:45 p.m., probate at 1 p.m., Sheriff’s Department/dispatch at 1:30 p.m., jail at 2:30 p.m. and clerk at 3:30 p.m.

The clerk’s budget covers several accounts including the county commissioner’s request for $90,895, an increase of $7,835, reflecting increases for each commissioner’s pay. Under the proposal, the chairman of the commission would receive $7,671, up from $7,447. The other two commissioners’ pay would increase to $7,272 from $7,060.

In the courthouse budget, the request rises to $123,707 from $87,685 with the bulk of the increase slated for electrical repairs/improvements, an engineering study, stairs, entryway and flooring.

The jail budget request is $1.26 million down from $1.27 million this year. The personnel services line in that budget shows an increase of $13,092 to bring the request up to $834,280. The request includes increasing the number of corrections officers from 14 to 17.

The Sheriff’s Department request is for $1.02 million, up $45,927 from this year’s $974,927 budget. The personnel services line in the account reflects and increase of $27,663 bringing it to $724,910 from $697,247 in the existing budget.

The department’s communication budget proposal also reflects an increase from $380,300 to $411,140 next year, a difference of $30,840. There is a $20,000 increase listed for personnel services with $354,000 requested for next year, up from $334,000 this year. Both the dispatchers’ and part-time dispatchers’ account lines each show a $10,000 increase.

The overall employee benefits account for the county also shows a requested increase of $153,345 to $1 million next year from $848,023 this year.

On Wednesday, budget review will begin at 9 a.m. with deeds with the remainder of the day dedicated to review agency requests.

An overall total for the 2007 budget was unavailable Monday.