FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners agreed to pay a portion of what they owe for computer maintenance at the Sheriff’s Department and Communications Center.

The panel on Tuesday voted 2-1, with Commissioner Gary McGrane of Jay opposed, to pay $5,893.60 for the first five months of a one-year bill to the CSH company. The total for a year is $10,145.80.

The bill has been an item of contention between some commissioners and Sheriff’s Department administrators since July.

McGrane said he wants to see a contract so he knows exactly what service the county is getting for the money.

Sheriff Chief Deputy Ray Meldrum said the county has been doing business with the company for more than a decade and never had a written contract.

The county is moving to a computer-aided dispatch service and record-keeping with Information Management Services Inc. The system is expected to be online in the first few months of 2012.

CSH has decades of information stored dealing with crimes, complaints and other data that dispatchers, deputies and office staff rely on. Meldrum said they will still need that information once the new system goes online, because that information will not be imported to the new computer program, IMC.

Meldrum told commissioners Tuesday that the dispatch center lost the capability to do license and registration checks on vehicles on Nov. 7. It turned out it was a glitch with the state system and was back online shortly after, Pike said.

“What we need is to have the bill paid for people who maintain our computers,” Meldrum said.

Commission Chairman Fred Hardy of New Sharon said he was in favor of paying for the work.

Pike, Meldrum and Commissioner Clyde Barker of Strong said it’s a public safety issue that affects the whole county.

“Public safety is at risk and it has been for a good while,” Barker said. “I think we ought to pay CHS what we owe them and see if the county can get on a six-month program until we have the new system set up.”

Initially, commissioners believed IMC would be online sooner.

Barker asked if CSH would service the county on a monthly basis.

Pike said someone needs to call and ask them.

“I would certainly be in favor of paying what we owe them and then on paying them on a monthly basis,” Hardy said.

McGrane said he is not going to pay someone without a contract.

“I’d like to know what’s in the contract,” McGrane said.

Meldrum reiterated that they have not had a contract in years.

“You are not going to get any money out of me,” McGrane said.

Hardy agreed that he’d like to see a contract to see the details of service provided.

There is also a second outstanding bill the county has not paid for $1,800, which includes $900 for a CSH representative’s time to come to Farmington on a joint discussion about IMC and computerized record-keeping.

Hardy said he was talking about paying the bill for maintenance service.

Barker and Hardy settled on paying five months of the company’s bill. That amount expires Nov. 30.

“To me its a fairness issue,” Hardy said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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