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The Mower County Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning approved unanimously a request to reorganize the Facilities and IT Departments to what is hoped will be a more efficient running system.

According to Kris Kohn, HR director for the county, the move comes following the departure of the IT director and the position will be reclassified as an operations director.

In this role, the operations director will enhance the collaboration between both the IT and Facilities departments as well as oversee personnel management and budget oversight.

Further down the chain the IT Department has three distinct job titles regarding staff performing specific functions. That will now change to consolidating the roles under Principal Analyst. Each employee under this banner would then focus on designated areas that include law enforcement, Health and Human Services or General IT Support.

Cost wise Kohn expected the move, which essentially removes a full time position, will result in a net cost savings of $156,876 for the county.

She also believes that the move could have an impact when the next budget comes along as the operations director will be able to see overlapping trends when it comes to the two departments.

“It’s something larger counties do in general,” Kohn told the board Tuesday. “The scope on which we were doing it was very appropriate for our size of accounting.”