NEW ULM — Brown County commissioners unanimously approved a $23,347.06 Auditor-Treasurer’s (AT) request for more office/storage space and several budget call-back items Tuesday.

The approval resolution came on a motion by Commissioner Scott Windschitl, seconded by Dean Simonsen.

“We’ve given it a lot of thought and we think it can work,” said Brown County Auditor-Treasurer Jean Prochniak.

The AT office has been working with the building and election committee to ensure the office is meeting necessary statutory requirements for elections, and providing appropriate storage of election equipment and supplies. In addition, the office is looking at adding a staff person and will need a work space for the new hire, Prochniak wrote in her request.

“For the past several months, we have been working to relocate and create appropriate storage for items required on our retention schedule,” Prochniak wrote. “STS (Sentenced to Service) provided much assistance with the projects. Permanent storage items have been relocated to the fourth floor. We are working toward the goal of having storage allocated by department for ease in future reference.”

Prochniak said the office has been researching the needs for storage and work space in the A-T office vault. Previous storage units are being reused in the permanent storage room and in the first floor vault. She said AT staff collaborated with Staples Office Products to design a new vault.

The vault revamp would allow for storage of ballots, ePoll books planned to be purchased with a 2018 state grant, allow work space for processing payments, check scanning, testing and deployment of election equipment and supplies, create a secure computer shared workspace, and provide storage for a variety of office documents.

Prochniak said the office met with Kemske Office Supply in New Ulm but no project quote was provided. In addition, the office will continue to use STS crew to complete some of the office work.

She said the AT office put in extra hours to accommodate the 2016 Presidential Election process. “We have been working hard to better utilize our space so we do not have to perform tasks outside regular business hours,” Prochniak wrote.

In addition, she wrote that the AT office has a carpeting quote from New Ulm Furniture but needs electrical quotes to extend power for the new workspace anticipated to be complete by Feb. 15. That would allow enough time to set up prior to an April 2018 anticipated hire date.

Prochniak said there is no more main office area work space to add staff. To ensure the flow of taxpayers is not disrupted due to direct balloting popularity, the office has to ensure it is conducting elections in accordance with statutes.

“We just haven’t been compliant with elections. This would make us compliant,” Prochniak said. “The money we asked for is a not to exceed estimate.”

“Thanks. This secures a lot of things space-wise,” Windschitl said. “We’ve making a significant investment because we have to.”

Commissioners approved:

• A Fiscal Year 2018/2019 Natural Resources Block Grant Agreement with the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR). Funds will be used to provide services to county residents for wetlands, feedlots, septic systems, water planning and shore land issues.

Brown County will receive $13,633 for local water management, $8,778 for wetland administration, $2,675 for shore land, $18,600 for septic systems with an additional $3,000 for Septic System Treatment Systems Incentive and $17,153 for 2018 Septic Systems Treatment Upgrades, for a total amount of $88,925.

The agreement stipulates Brown County will provide a $7,477 local water management levy match, $8,778 for wetland administration and $2,675 for shore land.

• Declaring Brown County Heartland Express’ 2007 Ford Eldorado bus as excess property and accept sealed bids on the MNBids website. The van was taken out of service in September.

fbusch@nujournal.com.