FARMINGTON — County commissioners on Friday plan to interview the three architectural firms they favor to build the county dispatch center. The meeting will be held at 1 p.m. July 27 at the commissioners’ office at the courthouse.

Six proposals were submitted from firms around the state with a variety of base prices. There are also additional fees that could be incurred and commissioners want to know exactly what each firm is offering for services, costs and time frames.

The firms submitted information that included review and design work rates, mileage, lodging, time frames, and additional fees for work not covered. Commissioners said they do not want to be caught unaware of hidden costs and want to know what the bottom line will be, at least a close estimate.

“I know in architectural work there are a lot of hidden figures,” acting Chairman Clyde Barker of Strong said.

The bids ranged from $29,860 to $53,249.

Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon is interested in going with the low bidder, Plymouth Engineering Inc. of Plymouth, Maine.

Commissioner Gary McGrane of Jay is interested in going with Port City Architecture of Portland at a price of $39,000. And Barker, a member of Dispatch Building Committee, is interested in staying with Smith, Reuter, Lull Architects of Lewiston and Bethel at a price of $44,000. The firm has done all the work up to the conceptual design and has worked with the county for about four years on building projects.

Some members of the Dispatch Building Committee took about a half-hour Tuesday to review the proposals while commissioners put off a vote to hear their recommendation.

The committee recommends staying with Smith, Reuter, Lull, Committee Chairman Stan Wheeler said as the group returned to the commissioners.

Concerns raised over the proposals included that the county plans to have a part-time clerk of the works, who is county custodian Greg Roux, a retired construction contractor.

Building Committee members did not know if Plymouth Engineering was aware of that and that is why the bid was as low as it was. There were only eight trips to the site listed.

Smith, Reuter, Lull are aware of the part-time clerk of the works and has compensated for it in the bid because architect Stephanie Lull worked with the Committee to reduce the budget from about $629,000 to $598,300 by removing money for a full-time clerk of the works and leaving a smaller amount for a part-time service and reducing other items.

Hardy said it would be pretty hard for him to justify spending an additional $15,000 for Smith, Reuter, Lull. He has nothing against the firm, he said, he is just looking at the low bid.

McGrane, who was not in attendance, sent his comments to Magoon. She said he favored Port City and liked that the firm’s time frame of 25 weeks compared to Smith, Reuter, Lull’s estimated of 40 weeks. Some committee members believed that the latter included six months of construction time.

She also said that McGrane liked that Port City had engineers on board.

Commissioners decided to meet with each of the three firms individually to find out which one will meet the county’s needs for the project.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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