FARMINGTON – Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to have an architectural firm consultant pursue federal and state funding programs to help build a $3 million public safety building.

Before commissioners would move forward to borrow that type of money, Chairman Fred Hardy of New Sharon said the issue would need to go to a referendum. However, learning if low-interest loans or grants for alternative energy sources are available should be done before a proposal is put together.

Commissioners also voted to send a letter to Farmington selectmen to invite them into the building design process for a new police station for the Police Department to be located at the county’s proposed public safety building. Farmington police are in the Farmington Municipal Building and have outgrown that space. A committee is pursuing building options for them as well.

Noel Smith, an architect with Smith Reuter Lull Architects of Lewiston and Bethel, gave commissioners an overview of a preliminary design for a 10,000-square-foot building proposed to the left side of County Way, on the opposite side of the jail. The building size may increase to fit other needs recommended by the Building Committee, Smith said.

The design shows a one-story rectangular building that would house emergency dispatchers, sheriff’s deputies, county administrators and emergency management personnel. It would be less expensive to build and easy to expand, Smith said of the design.

Franklin County dispatchers and deputies are working in cramped quarters in a small building on the 14 acres of county property next to the jail.

The architectural firm has been studying space needs and the county facilities, including the sheriff’s office and Franklin County Courthouse, to develop a plan to make improvements.

There is also a need for renovations to the sheriff’s office building, Smith said, to make it into a training facility, as well as need for an additional storage and maintenance building

The firm’s projected budget is $2.3 million for construction, $236,300 for administrative cost and reserve, and $247,700 for fees and services that include architects and engineers and a part-time field representative while the building is under construction.

Smith said with the added items requested, the project would be at the low-to-mid $3 million mark.

“It’s a work in progress,” Smith said. “We are making it an effort to make it a simple functioning building.”

Commissioner Gary McGrane of Jay said his concern is that the county not increase the carbon footprint and that green alternative energy be incorporated wherever possible.

That has been factored into the plan, Smith said.

John Cleveland, owner of Community Dynamics, and a consultant for the firm, said he has been discussing funding options with agencies that would produce long-term savings for the county.

Commissioners voted to pay $2,000 as part of an ongoing contract with the firm to cover Cleveland’s work to get the best financing deals for the county. He outlined his findings on what was available, which commissioners asked him to continue to pursue.