FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners plan to hold an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the prepurchasing steel for the Luce Bridge project in Salem Township before a 25% tariff on foreign steel and aluminum goes into effect next month.

The tariff would add $30,000 to $36,000 to the project, County Administrator Amy Bernard said.

The meeting is set for 2 p.m. at the county courthouse.

Commissioners will first hold an executive session, under the confidential records provision of Maine’s public meeting law, to review a service contract.

If commissioners decide to move forward with it, it will become public, Bernard said Thursday.

The board will also discuss a service agreement in public for software for the Technology Department, she said.

For the bridge project, the county contracted the engineering firm of Wentworth Partners & Associates of Skowhegan, which submitted the lowest bidder at $61,080 in July 2023. The company would engineer the bridge and get permits, including from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

According to Bernard, the company has found steel for the bridge replacement.

However, President Donald Trump has proposed a 25% tariff on foreign steel and aluminum as of March 12, according to news reports.

Commissioners voted in June 2024 to reject two bids over $1 million and to solicit another round of bids to replace the bridge. Commissioners anticipated the amount to replace it at about $700,000.

In December 2024, Bernard added money in the $3.4 million, 2025-26 unorganized territory budget to help pay for the Luce Bridge and another one.

Former county Road Supervisor Mike Pond said in 2022 that the wooden abutments on Luce Bridge were rotting, with the weight of the I beams and concrete on top of the wood and decking causing the bridge to deteriorate.

The state limited the vehicle weight to 30 tons for two years, but when the concrete top was replaced previously under another road supervisor, it was not shored up with steel, he previously said.