FARMINGTON – Tempers flared briefly Tuesday as county commissioners and sheriff’s department officials debated space needs for installation of upgraded 911 communications equipment.

After a couple of failed motions, commissioners unanimously voted to seek bids for an 8- by 16-foot addition – a closet-type space – with a concrete foundation to house upgraded equipment at the sheriff’s office.

The new equipment will be able to handle an expected increase in 911 calls that would come when the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department starts handling emergency calls from wireless phones. Those calls are now handled by state police dispatchers.

Farmington contractor Craig Jordan presented an estimate of costs for two options for the small addition. One had it built on frost-resistant posts and the other had a 4-foot high pressure-treated foundation with a concrete floor.

The prices ranged from about $9,000 to $12,000 with the latter including excavation work.

Jordan recommended the county go with the foundation, not because he was an advocate of spending money, he said, but because it would be there for a long time, it wouldn’t have a step up as the addition on posts would, and could be incorporated into future expansion of the building.

Jordan said the bulk of the difference between the two estimates was excavation work.

“I would rather build a smaller (area) to get a concrete floor in there,” Jordan said.

The addition would be exclusively for housing the equipment, Sheriff Dennis Pike told commissioners.

During the meeting, commission Chairman Gary McGrane of Jay said he wanted a cost estimate to add 20 feet in length to the width of the building.

For that size addition, it would mean bringing the existing building up to commercial code for public access and it wouldn’t be ready before April 1, Pike said. The building was built to residential standards prior to Farmington establishing a comprehensive plan, he said.

The going rate for construction on a commercial building is $200 a square foot, Jordan said, and with that size it would be about $120,000.

It would also require an architect to design a plan and get approval from the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office, he said.

McGrane said he was concerned about spending $10,000 and not being able to use the space in the future. He would rather see the larger addition to get more use out of the space.

“If I’m going to invest money, I want to invest it wisely,” McGrane said.

Pike said the space needs to be ready for the equipment or dispatch would be shutdown.

“If we do a full addition it would open a whole can of worms,” Pike said. The smaller addition would be grandfathered under the standards it was built under, he said.

Commissioner Fred Hardy said it makes more sense to spend the least amount of money, knowing that a new dispatch center is needed in the near future.

Both Hardy’s motion to get separate quotes for the smaller addition and foundation work and McGrane’s motion to get bids on the large addition and small addition failed for lack of seconds.

Commissioners are required to get quotes on projects under $10,000 and bids on projects more than $10,000.

Commissioner Meldon Gilmore said he thinks that anything done at the sheriff’s office is throwing good money after bad, since a new center is needed.

Verizon recently delayed installation of upgraded equipment at public safety answering points to review its system, so the installation time-frame is expected to be extended some, state communications representative Robert Gasper said in a phone conversation after the meeting.