FARMINGTON — Four Franklin County employees have applied for the new position of county webmaster.

Interviews will be conducted by an interview team the week of Nov. 28.

The county’s website, www.franklincounty.maine.gov, was created and launched in February by Lorna Nichols, cook supervisor at the jail. It had 15,402 hits on it by noon Tuesday.

Nichols, who is the wife of Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr., does the work on her personal time and is not compensated. She requested to to be paid for the work in late September or early October.

What started out as an idea that would take little volunteer time to maintain, has grown into about an hour or two a day, Nichols said in October.

Commissioners asked county Clerk Julie Magoon to draft a job description for the position, which commissioners approved Nov. 1. The webmaster position was advertised in-house to county employees.

A general summary of the position says a webmaster will implement web pages, maintain content and oversee day-to-day management of the county’s website, as well as assuring quality and timely updates of web pages. The webmaster is also responsible for providing or securing web hosting services for the website and developing a cloud-based presence for the county. 

The work includes updating daily the Sheriff’s Office jail booking log and dispatch incident log.

The sheriff agreed he would pay for half the cost to maintain the website out of his public safety account and the other half could come out of the tax-increment financing agreement, Magoon said previously.

The site also has agendas and minutes for county commissioners. It also covers all the county departments. Names and contact information for county officials, the sheriff’s weekly report and other pertinent county information are also available on it. A Registry of Deeds online research system is also included for Franklin and other counties.

Magoon told commissioners she uses the website often to have items posted, including notices, job openings, requests for bids and proposals.

The person who gets the job must be able to pass a background check for access to confidential information and data systems.

There is no money included in the county’s 2016-17 budget.

The position is five hours a week. Overtime will not be paid, according to commissioners. The position, along with the employee’s regular job, will not be able to exceed 40 hours a week. Any candidate who is working 40 hours will be asked if they need the full 40 hours to do their job or could they cut back and add in five hours weekly for the webmaster job.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net