Due to “some extraordinary IT issues” in 2017, the Brown County Commissioners came up a little short in that department to pay one employee through the end of the year.

The Brown County Council voted Dec. 18 to transfer of $1,683 from various lines in the commissioners’ budget to the IT assistant budget line so that Laura Minett could continue to work her normal schedule through the end of 2017.

Director of Technology Ric Fox said in an email Dec. 27 that the IT department has been working this year on upgrading firewalls, migrating servers, updating anti-virus versions and other projects. “All of these projects are interconnected in such a way that once we started one project, it brought another area of work to our attention,” he said.

Fox said he also has been busy overseeing the county’s maintenance department. He and the maintenance staff installed security cameras at the county highway garage. They also helped install auxiliary generators at the Emergency Management building and the Brown County Courthouse.

Fox said he is also overseeing the courtroom bailiff relocation project, as well as a project at the Brown County Purdue Extension Office that will allow staff there to have a better view of the front door when no one is at the front desk.

Minett also was assigned extra duties with the county’s Wellness Committee, which added extra hours “intermittently,” Fox said.