FARMINGTON – Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to ask a health provider for inmates to continue providing services until at least November, recognizing it will cost about 8 percent above the contract price.

Commissioners received no sealed bids to provide the service after Allied Resources for Correctional Health Inc. of Augusta decided to terminate its contract at the jail as of Aug. 31 due to economics and other issues.

Sheriff Dennis Pike said previously an Allied representative stated it was losing $600 a month providing service to the Franklin County jail.

Commissioners held Allied to the contract termination clause, which requires written notice to terminate 60 days prior to termination date. That period ends Sept. 30.

The county’s three-year contract with Allied was set to expire Dec. 31. This year’s cost to provide the service under the contract is $28,000. Some services not covered under the contract are provided at additional costs.

Allied was set to pull out of the jail by the end of the month.

Franklin Community Health Network in Farmington did send a letter from President Richard Batt, and David Robie, a representative of the organization to Tuesday’s meeting.

“We appreciate the opportunity to present a proposal to provide integrated primary care medical services to the jail. Unfortunately, time constraints – both yours and ours – do not allow us enough time to put forward the kind of thoughtful and quality program that you would expect from us and that we would be comfortable in delivering,” Batt wrote.

The network is interested in providing the service, Batt wrote, and is in the process of evaluating its professional provider capacity, exploring how it could provide a robust service that would integrate mental health with physical health, foster continuity of care with local doctors both pre- and post-incarceration, limit trips to the hospital’s emergency room with proactive on-site and telephone triage as well as provide education to inmates and the staff.

Robie said all of the network’s providers have jobs and if they’re going to go into a contract, they need to have all of the resources, including back-up in place.

“We are bullish on it. We want to do it but we want to make sure we do it right,” Robie said. “We don’t want this to be a profit for the hospital. We want to make it as break-even as possible.”

Batt is hoping to offer a proposal by mid-November, according to his letter.

In other business, commissioners voted to accept a $5,000 donation from a Farmington woman to go into the fund to pay veterinary bills for Franklin County Sheriff’s Department’s police dogs.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, has made donations to benefit the county’s dogs three times before. She donated $5,000 in 2007 to the canine veterinary account.

Commissioners Tuesday also:

• Voted to hire Charisse Keach of Chesterville as deputy treasurer/county clerk.

• Awarded contracts to low bidders: $23,700 from Webber Trucking & Construction for roadwork on nearly 2 miles on the Freeman Ridge Road in Freeman Township and Tellis Fenwick Jr. for a bid of $6,550 per mile for snow removal in Freeman and Salem townships.

• Awarded sole bidder Absolut Services the contract for snow removal of about 1.5 miles on Kennebago Road in Langtown Township for a total price of $10,500. Commissioners declined to accept the company’s proposed payment schedule and an increased pricing clause.