FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to approve taking a loan of up to $598,300 with Bangor Savings to finance a new county dispatch center.

Three banks and Maine Municipal Bond Bank submitted proposals, and Bangor Savings had the lowest interest rate at 2.97 percent for a 15-year loan, Commission Chairman Gary McGrane of Jay said.

Commissioners opted to draw out the money as they are needed.

The center will be built across from the Sheriff’s Department office on County Way in Farmington.

The annual payments will be $50,007.98. The interest over the life of the loan is $151,819.12

Voters approved the project in June.

Prior to the vote, a 15-year bond was estimated to have an approximate interest rate of 3.81 percent and cost $189,479.76.

The total debt service for the project is now estimated at $750,119.12 rather than the previously estimated $787,779.76.

Commissioners voted in August to sign a contract with Plymouth Engineering Inc. of Plymouth for $29,860 for design work, creating bid packages and other related tasks associated with building the center.

In other business on Tuesday, commissioners reviewed a draft letter to the Board of Corrections requesting the mission be changed for the county jail to become a full-time operational jail. After some discussion on the letter’s contents, they voted to send the letter.

Franklin County was a full-time jail until July 1, 2009, when the state took over the county jails. Franklin County was one of three in the state to become 72-hour holding facilities.

Transportation cost is one of the biggest issues facing the jail. Inmates need to be driven to Somerset County Jail in Madison if they don’t make bail within 72 hours. Transport officers need to pick up the inmates at the Madison jail and take them to court or medical appointments.

Franklin County jail is 25 miles from the Somerset County Jail. The Farmington courts are 2 miles from the jail in Farmington, jail Manager Doug Blauvelt said.

If the Somerset jail is full, inmates would have to be transported farther to other facilities. Most recently, corrections officers were traveling about two hours each way to facilities in southern Maine to board the county’s inmates.

County Clerk Julie Magoon said a two-year budget was submitted to the state last month.

The projected budget stayed at $1.6 million per year, Blauvelt said.

The county still raises the same amount of money from taxpayers at $1.6 million that it did in 2008. The operational budget has ranged from about $800,000 to $1.1 million since the change was implemented in 2009 and the rest is sent to the state, county authorities said.

The county spent 96.6 percent of the $1.1 million during 2011-12, Clerk Julie Magoon previously said.

The remainder of the money goes to the state to help with other costs statewide, Blauvelt said.

“There would be no change to taxpayers really. It is a benefit to the community,” he said.

The state set an annual budget cap of $1.6 million for the Franklin jail when it took over the jails in 2009.

The budget proposed and submitted is less than the cap, Magoon said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link