The fiscal year 2021 budget for Information Technology was presented to the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors this week, reflecting their intentions to hire their own IT administrator this spring.

Panora Communications Cooperative has been their current contractor, and Technology Development Director Curt Thornberry stated that they have been asked to continue supporting the County’s servers and network resources, while the County’s IT employee would handle day-to-day responsibilities. The proposed budget includes Panora Telco charging the County $90 an hour for consulting services during normal business hours and $127.50 for outside those hours.

Supervisor Mike Dickson said this week that the County intends to hire an IT administrator this April, for an ease of transition between Panora Telco and the new employee. Department heads were asked to email a list of their desired skills for this employee, and as of Tuesday the only response came from County Attorney Brenna Bird. She gave her perspective on the transition at Tuesday’s Board meeting, emphasizing how technology is essential to her office, “My thoughts are I would need something that is seamless, because I can’t have things go down during court or trials or anything because it doesn’t work that way. The courts are electronic too, the judge has a computer right in front of him.”

A specific wage has not been set for the new hire, but the potential range is from $65-105,000. No action was taken on the fiscal year 2021 IT budget.