FARMINGTON – The architects developing plans for a new, 9,600 square foot facility for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department believe that the project will cost more than $3 million to implement.
County commissioners heard a presentation by the firm of Smith Reuter Lull Architects of Lewiston, who have been planning the county’s upcoming facility improvements. While this includes potential modifications to the Superior Courthouse building, the topic of today’s meeting was a proposed public safety building near the Franklin County Jail.
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That new building would dwarf the existing “White House” office, which currently houses most of the sheriff’s department offices and the dispatch center. This new facility, located across the existing access drive from the jail, would house several county government operations.
“The intent is to move the county administration and (local) Emergency Management Agency facilities,” Architect Noel Smith explained, “and combine them with the dispatch and some of the sheriff’s facilities on the jail site.”
Commissioners have stated in the past that a primary goal of the project is to have a completely secure place for the dispatch center, which directs emergency response personnel across the county. The architects believe that the county’s EMA should be located in the same building.
The design for the building itself is deliberately simple, a rectangular-shaped series of offices divided among the four departments but with internal circulation.
“A straightforward building,” Smith said, “is less expensive to build.”
The current plans have already been shown to the building committee, who have made comments and recommendations which have already resulted in a more advanced design being developed, so the plans shown at Tuesday’s meeting are extremely preliminary. In addition to the main building, the architects are currently looking at adding a small storage and maintenance building off of the jail’s main parking lot. This building would be used to store equipment and service the sheriff’s department vehicles.
The White House office would be modified to serve as a training facility and meeting area, separate from public safety operations, which possibly could be used by anyone in the county.
The proposed public safety building has a current projected cost of $2.8 million, but with the proposed alterations elsewhere on the site the architects believe it could exceed $3 million to go forward with the project.
The county and firm are currently looking into how to fund the project. John Cleveland, who is working with the architects to identify potential sources of funding, told commissioners today about a low-interest loan program through the USDA’s rural development program. This would let the county pay off the facility over the course of an extended period of time, at a fixed rate of interest that is currently lower than the one being offered through the Maine Municipal Bond Bank.
County Clerk Julie Magoon also noted that the costs of paying off the project would need to be weighed against the current high maintenance and other expenses associated with the aging facilities the county currently uses.
Cleveland asked for, and got, permission from the commissioners to begin looking into the USDA’s program. A representative from that organization will likely meet with the commissioners at some later date.
“I think that it’s a great way to start,” he said. He noted that other funding possibilities existed as well, including programs aimed at helping pay for specific aspects of the new facility, such as green energy.
Commissioners also authorized the payment of a lump sum of $2,000 to the architect firm for their current and future work at identifying potential sources of funding. The cost for this service had been outlined in the contact the county and Smith Reuter Lull Architects were operating under.
In addition to the payment and permission to explore the USDA program, commissioners also authorized sending a letter to the town of Farmington. This letter officially invited the town to join the county’s discussions and possibly collaborate with the public safety facility project.
Farmington is developing its own project, currently a new police station building estimated to cost $2.3 million, which both the commissioners and architects acknowledged at the meeting. While representatives from the town and Farmington Police Department had been at preliminary meetings, no official invitation to join the proceedings had been previously expressed.
“There’s been these discussions but no formal invitation,” Smith said.
The plan being proposed by Smith Reuter Lull Architects has space blocked off which the Farmington Police Department could utilize to build an adjoining facility, if it so chose. That space, to the eastern side of the project, would abut the facilities within the building which two departments could share; lockers, interview rooms, evidence storage and file space. Areas the two departments would likely not wish to share, such as office space, are located further toward the center of the building.
Previously, the town’s building committee had moved away from collaborating with the county’s project, citing various concerns. These included the potential conflicts between the two different law enforcement agencies in the same space and the non-central location of the jail as relative to the majority of the Farmington.
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