FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Monday to hire Mary Hastings of Chesterville as the new legal secretary for the county District Attorney’s Office.

Hastings is a certified police officer. She has worked for the Farmington Police Department and the University of Maine at Farmington.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Robbins said seven people were interviewed for the position.

Hastings was the unanimous choice, he said.

She will fill a position left vacant when legal secretary Miranda Butterfield left to work at the Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office.

Hastings will receive an entry level wage of $15.58 per hour during a six-month probationary period.

She will begin her duties Tuesday.

In other business Monday, commissioners voted to sign a contract to lease a mower from Howard P. Fairfield at $4,800. Jerry Haines, the county’s unorganized territory road agent, uses the mower for brush cutting in the unorganized territories.

Clerk Julie Magoon said Haines budgeted for the lease.

Commissioners also voted to accept money in a criminal forfeiture if there is a guilty plea in the John Hall drug case. The amount is $4,130 and would be shared with law enforcement agencies that participated in the case, Magoon said.

dperry@sunjournal.com