FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners are seeking qualified architectural and engineering services to plan, design and oversee construction of county offices.
The Franklin County Courthouse on Main Street in Farmington. Sun Journal file photo
The intent is to add to the Franklin County Regional Communications Center on County Way, where the jail and the Sheriff’s Office are located in separate buildings. The addition would house offices for the sheriff’s department, county government and Emergency Management Agency, and include a shared multipurpose space.
The communications center was built for the possibility of an addition.
Commission Chairman Terry Brann of Wilton said his plan would be to use some of the county’s expected $5.86 million share from the America Rescue Plan Act. Half was received last year and the rest is expected to arrive by the end of the year.
The county cannot use the federal money for a new building but can add to an exiting one.
In 2010, voters overwhelmingly rejected a $4.6 million project that included more than a dispatch center. It was to buy a building on Church Street, then known as Church Street Commons, and move county government offices there from the courthouse on Main Street.
Afterward, commissioners agreed to lease space in a nearby building on Main Street from Craig Jordan of Farmington, to relocate the District Attorney’s Office from the ground floor of the courthouse. That space is occupied by the county Emergency Management Agency Office, along with technical services and facility maintenance offices.
In 2012, voters approved building a 2,200-square-foot dispatch center across from the Sheriff’s Office building on County Way.
The courthouse was built in 1885, with an addition constructed in 1917. Offices on the main floor are small for the most part. Five people are sharing space for county administration in two rooms. Commissioners also have a small meeting room in the same unit of offices. The Superior Court is on the upper level.
There is not enough space in the courthouse, Commissioner Chairman Terry Brann said. They didn’t plan ahead for computers and all of the required files when it was built, he said.
There has also been discussion about poor air quality in the building, he said.
Air tests and an environmental study were done on the building several years ago.
In Brann’s opinion, EMA doesn’t belong in the courthouse, but on County Way with the dispatch center and Sheriff’s Office, he said.
County Facilities Manager Nick Palmer said he plans to have an air quality test done next month.
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