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The stairwells of the courthouse do not meet safety codes, according to a report conducted by the state Fire Marshal’s Office.FARMINGTON – County commissioners will be reviewing the 2010-2011 budget Tuesday and Wednesday, meeting with department heads as they consider the inclusion of a new financial director position and a courthouse renovation.
The budget appropriates $33,215 for the 35-hour director position, who would effectively be responsible for the duties currently covered by the county treasurer. While the treasurer, an elected official, would continue to sign checks and so forth, the director would be responsible for the county’s finances.
This change, which other counties have already undertaken, is to provide for the contingency of a treasurer with little or no accounting experience being elected. To help reduce the impact of the new position, the treasurer’s stipend would be reduced from $16,147 annually to $12,000, and the deputy treasurer’s stipend would be reduced from $13,814 to $1,500.
Currently, the county treasurer is Karen Robinson, who has held the position for several years. Robinson is retiring after her term expires at the end of this year, with $4,000 of the $12,000 stipend set aside for the newly-elected treasurer.
The budget also includes money to fund courthouse renovations. These include both maintenance-related repairs, such as $10,500 for external painting, and fixing safety code violations. Following an inspection earlier this year, the state’s Fire Marshal’s Office found nine “life safety code violations” at the Franklin County Courthouse that need to be fixed.
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Among the most serious involve the two interior staircases, one on the north side of the building, which runs from the basement to the second floor, and another on the south side, which runs from the first to the second-floor courtroom. Neither staircase is enclosed, which would allow the spread of smoke and fire throughout the building if a blaze were to occur.
The budget sets aside $50,000 to address that issue, as well as $16,000 to the architect firm Smith Reuter Lull. The commissioners will sit down with the architects, who have been working on the proposed renovation of the Church Street Commons to accommodate the Registry of Deeds and Probate Court, at tomorrow’s meeting to develop a remediation plan for some of the other violations.
Other new line items include making a part-time, temporary position at the District Attorney’s Office permanent. Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson, in a memo addressed to commissioners, cited “increased clerical demands placed upon [the] office” as the reason for the request. The part-time position is budgeted at $14,976 annually.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department is showing the largest departmental increase, with a budget request of $1.42 million, up from the previous year’s $1.35 million. Most of the increase is in the personnel line, in both wage increases and health insurance appropriations.
