AUBURN – Three corners of Androscoggin County have agreed to make room for patrolling sheriff’s deputies.

Selectmen in Greene, Poland and Durham gave permission to let the county create sheriff’s substations in town buildings. The reason: a squeeze at the department’s headquarters in the county building in downtown Auburn.

Last week, after touring the 151-year-old building with the Lewiston City Council, the County Commission ordered the dank and musty basement off limits to employees.

The three-member board shuffled the offices, moving detectives into a former storage space and finding room for the civil division in a space beside the dispatch room.

“We’re almost finished,” Sheriff Guy Desjardins said Monday. “We just have to move a few more phone lines. The bulk of the work is done.”

The last piece was to find some room for patrol deputies, space where they can write their reports. There is some room on the first floor of the courthouse, but not enough.

So Desjardins came up with the substation idea.

In Poland, the officer will use a desk in the town office complex. In Durham and Greene, the officers will use a little space in the fire houses.

Greene Town Manager Charles Noonan said the concept was an easy sell. After all, expense was minimal, since the officers will use their own laptop computers and they’ll have their own phones.

The only expense will be a slight addition to the light bill.

In return, the town will likely have a deputy on hand for a little longer, Noonan said.

State police and the sheriff’s office divide the county into two zones, focusing on small towns without their own police forces. The agencies alternate zones each month.

One zone encompasses Livermore, Minot and Turner and has more than 9,000 people. The other is Greene, Leeds, Wales and Durham, which has about 10,000 people. Poland contracts with the county for patrol coverage.

After midnight, county deputies cover both zones.