Carroll Community College officials asked the county commissioners yesterday to hire an additional maintenance worker next year to help keep the campus buildings in good repair.

And the college officials suggested how the county can pay for it. They said the commissioners could use some of the $120,000 the county won't have to give them because the state came up with $890,000 more for the college's operating budget last month.

College officials succeeded in getting the additional state money in a supplemental budget. So, they won't raise the $48-per-credit-hour tuition or ask the county for any budget increase.

But they want the commissioners to add a maintenance worker to the county maintenance staff, which takes care of college buildings. The position was in a proposed county budget for 1995, but has since been cut.

"We still feel strongly we do need an additional maintenance worker," College President Joseph F. Shields said.

The college buildings are owned by the county, but the maintenance staff is made up of county employees plus employees of a company that has a contract to clean the college.

County Commissioner Elmer C. Lippy asked Dr. Shields how the contracted cleaning service is going, because employees in other county buildings have complained about contracted services from at least two companies.

Dr. Shields said the services could be better. But he said contracting the service is more cost-efficient than using all county staff, even if the county doesn't have direct control over the employees who do the work.