A crew from Jordan Excavation in Kingfield digs a foundation hole in June for the $4.4 million Franklin County emergency operations center on County Way in Farmington. The site is diagonally across from the county Detention Center and beside the county Regional Communications Center. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Aug. 6 to approve the county’s tax-increment finance grant application for $700,000 for the new emergency operations center being built on County Way.

There is an estimated $4.1 million in the county’s TIF funding account and there is expected to be another $700,000 coming into the account in October, according to county Administrator Amy Bernard’s information.

The county is trying to build the new operations center without going to the taxpayers’ for money for the project. The 30-year TIF expires in 2039.

TIF funds are to be used for economic development purposes for the unorganized territory and can be used on a prorated basis if they are used countywide. The county entered into an Enterprise Tax-Increment Finance and Development Program agreement with TransCanada Maine Wind Development in 2008 when it owned a 44-turbine wind energy development in Kibby and Skinner townships. TransCanada sold the wind energy project to Helix Maine Wind Development in 2017.

Commissioners approved three other TIF grant applications on Tuesday that came with recommendations from the Tax-Increment Finance grant advisory committee. Of those, $19,480 was granted toward a total project amount of $38,260 for the United Methodist Economic Ministry in Salem Township. It will allow upgrades to its warming center, to be open more days each week. That application was dated May 29.

They also approved $125,000 of a $193,474 total project cost in a 2-1 vote Greater Franklin Economic and Community Development submitted by Greater Franklin Development Council in Farmington. The organization is “charged with creating the ecosystem that allows for economic and community vitality,” according to Executive Director Charlie Woodworth. The grant application was dated July 23. Commissioners Chairman Lance Harvell of Farmington and Commissioner Bob Carlton of Freeman Township approved the vote and Commissioner Terry Brann of Wilton opposed it.

Commissioners also approved the Flagstaff Area Business Association in Carrabassett Valley’s request for $15,700 for them to do a marketing blitz for Maine’s Northwestern Mountains region. The total cost of the project is $25,000, according to the application. The application was dated July 24.

The county’s application for the $700,000 toward a $4.4 million project was submitted in mid May with a cover letter dated May 13 and did not get a recommendation from the committee. According to Woodworth, an administrator for the TIF committee, which is a five-member volunteer panel, hadn’t had a chance to review the application in depth. They only meet at certain times of the year.

The committee wants all applicants to go through the same review process, Woodworth said. They did not realize there was a timeline with the county application which led to the commissioners having to approve the project at the Aug. 6 meeting, he wrote in an email. The committee wasn’t opposed to the application. They just didn’t give themselves time to fully review it.

Bernard said during the Aug. 6 meeting that all of the answers to the questions that arrived on Aug. 2 from the committee were in the grant application, including matching funds.

The county was awarded $2 million from Congress earlier this year, and will use about $1.67 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to help pay for the $4.4 million project. Commissioners applied for a $700,000 grant from the county tax-increment program, which would help pay for space for administrative personnel, including the manager of the unorganized territory.

Ground was broken in June for the building that will house Franklin County administrative offices, the sheriff’s office, the information technology department, and the Emergency Management Agency. A large conference room will also be included. It will be located diagonally across from the jail and adjacent to the Regional Communications Center.

With the TIF funds, the building will provide a new safe and accessible building, which is needed for several reasons, including, but not limited to: training and development, privacy, larger meeting capacity, storage and community service, according to Bernard. It will also provide space for most of the county staff to be in one centralized location, she wrote.

“This space will also allow the county employees to provide better service to the community and be more efficient,” she wrote.