Morton County commissioners voted to reactivate the information technology committee Friday during the budget hearing process. An overhaul of the system may be needed within the next 18 months.

IT director Steve Kelsch said that because county auditor Paul Trauger is retiring in March 2011, the county needs to re-examine its AS-400 computer system before he leaves office.

The system oversees tax rolls, financial data for the city and county, imaging and deeds recording.

In a related matter, the IT committee will be asked to restart efforts on its geographical information system process so land parcels and road data throughout the county will be updated on computer records. Kelsch said it would be up to the committee to ask for funding for a study on computer system needs.

"With building this GIS data set, we're found there are some things that need to be worked on that we didn't know were out there before we could identify them in this computer system," Kelsch said. He said they needed to work together to determine how best to flow the missing information.

Morton County Emergency Manager Tammy Lapp Harris also said rural addressing is complete throughout other parts of the county, but not for Mandan.

City officials from Mandan will be included in committee discussions.

"We need to re-evaluate the systems we have," Kelsch said later. "We need to evaluate what we have and if it is time to do these upgrades."

So far, spending requests for Morton County's 2010 budget total $23 million. Trauger said revenues, including collections, are $24 million.

Preliminary requests have about $12 million of the 2010 revenue for the county levied from property taxes. That would be about $300,000 more levied than the 2009 budget.

Trauger is requesting a 2- mill levy increase.

Part of that extra money would be dedicated to improvements at Harmon Lake Park. "We'll go from three to four mills levied for parks," he said. He said by law, the county must go to Mandan and other cities in the county to approve the increase.

The extra mills would increase money for the parks from $210,000 to $280,000.

Trauger also said capital project increases would be needed to fix diesel spill issues below the Law Enforcement Center. Bids on a diesel collection system are still pending. The commission hopes the Mandan Remediation Trust will help pay for the project.

Trauger said property taxes will increase an average of 6 percent.

Commissioners proposed each employee receive about $100 more per month for cost of living pay.

Morton County Road Superintendent Chuck Morman expects few increases for the 2010 road budget, thanks to $2 million in state emergency snow money and $500,000 more expected from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The FEMA funds will help repair 500 flooded roads and bridges in the county. Work has started without the reimbursement. Morman said that repair work is about 30 percent to 40 percent complete.

The negotiations continue with FEMA over compensation, but documentation is involved and progress slow.

He expects the agency will give them another $2 million for 15 wooden bridges, including two that were destroyed. He said the two bridges carried away will not be replaced until late 2010 or 2011.

Morman said talks continue over sharing costs for a salt/sand storage facility with the city of Mandan.

This storage is required by the Environmental Protection Agency. He said an 80-foot-by-50-foot open-ended building would cost about $150,000.

He said the future wind turbine farms in the county will have a big impact on road maintenance and development.

Morman said the constant snow and road maintenance over the past year beat up some of his larger equipment.

His wish list includes some snow plow trucks (new and used) for about $190,000, a new snow blower for $120,000 and updating his fleet of pickups for $60,000.

The 2010 preliminary budget is posted at www.co.morton.nd.us.

(Reach reporter LeAnn Eckroth at 250-8264 or leann.eckroth@bismarcktribune.com.)