FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to accept a bid from WB Mason in Maine for three sit-to-stand dispatcher consoles and for installation of them in the new dispatch center.

The company was the only bidder at $40,474. It does not include chairs.

The bid package also included amounts for furniture for the training room, break room and supervisor and quality control offices, but commissioners put that portion off to see how much money will be left over from the bond once information technology costs are known. The latter costs were not all factored into the proposed budget for the center.

Company account executive Christina Stonier said that she knew the budget was tight and submitted a bid for the consoles and another one for the furniture for the remainder of the center with two options.

The $40,474 includes installation of the consoles, she said.

Commissioner Gary McGrane of Jay said the Commission could accept the bid and then negotiate for the other furniture later.

The consoles will allow dispatchers to raise them up so that they can stand at them and work if they feel they have been sitting too long, dispatcher Stan Wheeler, chairman of the Dispatch Building Committee, said.

The chairs they currently use are adequate to be used in the new center, he said.

Chairs get expensive, he said.

It would be better off buying a less expensive chair and replacing them often rather than spending $1,500 on a chair and replacing them every five years, Wheeler said.

WB Mason’s options on the other furniture are from $7,841 to $12,038 or in between, McGrane said.

The new dispatch center is expected to be complete by the end of June, Keith Ewing, project engineer from Plymouth Engineering, said.

The total construction budget was $493,749, he said. It is estimated that there will be an overrun in the construction budget of about $11,398, he said. The overrun is tied to additional information technology work, he said.

Commissioners voted in January to pay Central Maine Powers cost of $34,957 to provide power to the new building from a reserve account that is in place to provide improvements to the Sheriff’s Department building. The amount in the account in January was $48,871.

The remaining portions of the budget has about $70,000 in it, county Clerk Julie Magoon said. There are a few bills that need to be paid from it.

It won’t be known if there will be an overrun of the entire $598,300 bond for the project until the technology costs to connect the Sheriff’s Department building to the new center and the security camera system are known, she said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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