FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to carry over $41,500 to 2019-20, which begins July 1, for projects and other uses.
Approved in carry-overs were $12,000 from the dispatchers line in the Regional Communications Center budget, which will be used in union negotiations. There was $12,361 remaining in the account. In a different dispatch line, $7,500 was carried over for a price adjustment to the IMC, a computer-aided dispatch program and public safety system, because of emergency fire dispatch interface.
Also carried over was $10,000 from the sheriff”s patrol account to use for additional stipends for sergeants for on-call pay. That account stood at $65,918.
Commissioners also approved carrying over $1,000 to upgrade the propane tank area, if needed, for the county’s public safety communications tower, known as Mosher Tower in Farmington.
The commission also agreed to carry over $11,000 from the Information Technology Systems line to help with licenses for a new email system and contractual assistance to help move everything over, department Administrator Jim Desjardins said. The current email system expires Dec. 31.
Desjardins said he put $18,000 in his budget for the conversion. The Budget Advisory Committee cut the budget and only left $7,000 in it for the project, which will not cover the conversion, Desjardins said.
Commission Chairman Charles Webster of Farmington suggested Desjardins bring in a bill for the project and commissioners would pay it out of surplus. Desjardins said he wouldn’t know what the final cost would be until it was done.
“We absolutely have to have email,” County Clerk Julie Magoon said.
Desjardins said it was frustrating that the budget committee would come up with a number on its own and not ask him any questions about what the money was for. The panel reduced the budget for technical services.
The $40,000 reduction for IT services comes from capital overlay, according to a Morning Sentinel article in May. New Sharon Selectman Travis Pond, who made the motion for the reductions, said projects for capital overlay are a “wish list.” He said because the exact cost of future projects, including the installation of a new internet server, aren’t known, there isn’t a need to budget an extensive amount of money.
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