FARMINGTON — Voters rejected the plan to fix Franklin County buildings but the health, safety and space concerns still exist.

On Tuesday, commissioners authorized the District Attorney’s Office to look for leased space and leave the ground-level offices in the courthouse where recurring dampness and air-quality issues have existed for several years.

State prosecutors also agreed to work with a committee to see if there are ways the issues could be addressed in-house in a more cost-effective way.

John Cleveland, a consultant who has worked with an architecture firm to develop a plan to alleviate the problems at the Sheriff’s Department building and courthouse, said they didn’t plan to leave the county hanging.

On Nov. 2, voters overwhelmingly rejected a $4.46 million bond to fix county work spaces under a proposed plan.

Options will be presented to commissioners within 60 days using data and designs developed as part of the $4.46 million bond proposal.

While doing several presentations on the building improvement plans, Cleveland said he didn’t hear that there was no need, but concerns were raised about the cost.

“I still think there is a need and we need to find a modest way to do it,” he said.

Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon said he believed the Sheriff’s Department quarters for E911 dispatchers and deputies needs to be addressed.

Franklin County Commission Chairman Gary McGrane said he had heard from community members after the vote that they realize there are problems, but thought the bond amount was too much.

The general public wants to know what the county is going to do now, McGrane said.

Smaller steps need to be taken, he said.

Health-related problems and the dispatch situation need to be addressed, he said.

Ideas presented earlier will be revisited, including moving emergency dispatchers and/or deputies into the jail. The jail is a 72-hour holding facility and the average daily population is two, said Budget Committee member Irv Faunce of Wilton, who also serves on the state Board of Corrections.

The county is trying to get a prerelease program instituted at the jail that could bring in $40,000 a year, Hardy said.

The idea of using the jail initially was not favored by some of those on the Building Committee, Hardy and McGrane said.

Faunce said the population numbers for the prerelease program would also be low, maybe from eight to 10 people at a time. Those people would do community service at various places in the county prior to release.

The prerelease program idea has gone over well at the state level, he said, but the problem is finding the money to do it.

“I think it is important that the county look at creatively using the jail,” Faunce said.

All ideas need to be looked at with an open mind, architect Stephanie Lull said.

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