FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners accepted recommendations Tuesday from the sheriff and jail manager to have MedPro Associates in Dover-Foxcroft provide medical services to jail inmates for $133,900 for a year.

The 72-hour holding facility is expected to reopen as full-time jail in March.

Commissioners also voted to go with Evergreen Behavioral Services of Farmington to provide mental health and substance abuse services to inmates for $89,000. They also approved Franklin County Adult Basic Education in Farmington to provide educational services for $21,671.45.

MedPro was the only bidder for the medical services and included mental health services in the bid.

There were two other bidders for mental health services, including Tri-County Mental Health Services.

Maj. Doug Blauvelt, manager of the jail, said he worked with MedPro representatives to remove the mental health services part and reduce nursing services to five days a week instead of seven.

That brought the cost down, he said.

Evergreen Behavioral Services will provide all services required by the state Department of Corrections pertaining to mental health. Evergreen’s price was less than Tri-County, he said.

Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon asked why Blauvelt and Nichols were recommending Evergreen when MedPro had offered to do mental health services for $37,000.

The two services were totally different, he said. There was only a paragraph in MedPro’s proposal and it didn’t give much to go on, Blauvelt said.

Besides providing mental health services, Evergreen will help the inmates ready to leave the jail with their transitions, he said.

The issue is MedPro is out of Dover-Foxcroft and not local, and if an inmate who comes in is violent, services are needed immediately, Nichols said.

The jail has used Evergreen in the past and its representatives are familiar with the level of services needed, he said.

Nichols said they were not talking just about psychological issues but others, including inmates coming in on drugs and going through withdrawal in jail.

Inmates who become violent have caused injuries to corrections officers, he said.

Evergreen would provide the same services as the Department of Corrections provides to its inmates, he said.

A lot of people who come in already have a relationship with Evergreen, Blauvelt said. Having crisis services available is a must, he said.

With the adjustments made to services and jail staffing, the county can keep the cost to run the jail under the $1.6 million cap, Nichols said. The cap was set by the state when the county jails were consolidated into one system by the state.

It will be close with the adjustments made, county Clerk Julie Magoon said.

These services are based on the jail having 40 inmates, Blauvelt said. On average, the jail has 32 inmates and the county can bring in revenue by boarding others to offset some of the expenses, he said.

The county has in the past received state community corrections funds for programs for inmates to help offset expenses.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net