FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners on Tuesday accepted the lowest bid of $698,798 from a Hallowell contractor to build a 450-square-foot addition to the Detention Center for a medical space.

The bids for the addition came in at about three times the cost that was anticipated, said Sue Pratt, the county’s American Rescue Plan Act program administrator.

There is $250,000 currently set aside in federal funding for the infirmary project.

The lowest bid for the addition came from E.J. Perry Construction Co., Pratt said.

The county has about $700,000 in federal ARPA funding that is not designated from the total of $5.86 million allotted, but the county government now plans to use $168,000 of that to help pay for the new infirmary, Pratt said.

County Administrator Amy Bernard and Pratt will look at different revenue sources to determine where the rest of the money will come from. They will put together a proposal for commissioners.

“We have to move forward. That space is obscene,” Commissioner Bob Carlton of Freeman Township said. He said the current medical space is about as a big as the table he was sitting at.

Prior to receiving bids for the addition, Pratt, at the commissioners’ direction, went back to those who had submitted project proposals previously that were either denied or put on hold, and has had 16 applications submitted for the leftover funds.

Commissioners had stopped funding projects until they heard if the county would receive just over $2 million in Congressional Directed Spending to help pay for a new emergency operations center on County Way, where the Sheriff’s Office, jail and Regional Communications Center are located. They learned earlier this year that the county is expected to receive that federal funding for the proposed center, which is currently underway with an expected cost of $4.4 million.

The county also will use about $1.67 million set aside from the $5.86 million ARPA fund allotment and a $700,000 grant from the county’s tax-increment finance district funding.

Commissioners will take up the 16 grant requests for project proposals either in late October or in November. The ARPA funds need to be obligated by Dec. 31 and spent by the end of 2026.