SKOWHEGAN -- Full speed ahead.

That was the sentiment expressed Wednesday by Amber Lambke of Skowhegan after Somerset County Commissioners unanimously approved the sale of the century-old county jail to Lambke's Somerset Grist Mill LLC.

"It's been a long road and it's finally come to a successful conclusion," Commissioner Gerald York of Fairfield said following the vote that amounts to a compromise for parking and a pedestrian walkway between Lambke and John Moore, owner of the nearby Strand Cinema.

The final sale price is $65,000 for the 1897 jail and a small adjoining parking lot that Moore has been leasing for parking from the county.

The easement deed with Moore is for 19 years.

"Full speed ahead -- we've got Somerset farmers with wheat in the ground," Lambke said. "Now we start purchasing equipment and get a closing date as quickly as possible; I hope next week."

The first loaf of artisan bread could be ready to slice by sometime in August, Lambke and her business partner Michael Scholz, of Albion, said outside the commissioners' room.

Lambke and Scholz, a baker and wheat grower, want to transform the 14,000-square-foot jailhouse into a grist mill for flour production, stone ovens for baking bread, a restaurant and a small retail store to sell bread and locally raised fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese and other dairy products.

She said she envisions 12 new jobs at the mill, store and office, with additional artists, farmers and growers selling their wares six days a week.

Lambke said local wheat will be harvested, cleaned and milled into flour. Scholz then will make the first loaf of bread in late August.

"It's fitting that this will be situated in Somerset County," Lambke said. "Somerset County had the largest wheat yields in Maine in the 1830s."

For his part in the agreement, Moore gave much of the credit to Skowhegan Lawyer Warren Shay, the county's legal representative who assisted with settling the parking dilemma that originally had stalled the jail sale.

"The commissioners had a difficult situation," Moore said. "I think letting Warren mediate was a stroke of genius. Warren is a great asset to this community; I don't know that he gets the credit that he deserves, but his steady hand and mild manner helped the situation."

Moore will pay for signs and improvements and maintenance of the parking area, the pedestrian walkway and access driveway to the parking lot, but will not pay Lambke and her partner for use of the parking area, which accommodates 13 vehicles.

Moore's movie theater parking lot can be used from 6 p.m. to midnight seven days a week. During all other times, the parking area can be used in common by the Strand and the Grist Mill and their patrons and employees, according to the easement deed.

Lambke will pay the taxes on the land, a narrow strip of property that connects Court Street, where the cinema is, with the municipal parking lot.

"Overall we're very happy," Moore said. "The larger issue is the pedestrian walkway to the municipal lot, that's going to be crucial."

The old jail was closed last fall. Inmates were moved to a new facility a few miles away in East Madison.

Commissioner York said the final agreement makes everyone a winner.

"When Amber first made this proposal I was totally sold on it," York told the small assembly gathered to hear the vote. "It's a concept I see as successful; I think it will benefit Somerset County, the town of Skowhegan and the surrounding communities. I don't see any losers here.

"Amber's a winner. John's a winner. Somerset County's a winner."

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534, ext. 342

dharlow@centralmaine.com