MONTICELLO — Supervisors approved a motion Tuesday to spendapproximately $50,000 on computer upgrades to the sheriff’s officeand Justice Court.

The upgrades would not only bring the five-year-old systemup-to-date, but would also link the two offices together, saidCharlie Prince, county comptroller.

“It’s not something we really have a choice on,” Prince said.”They system we have is five years old.”

The two offices need to be linked, said Sheriff Joel Thames,because of the possibility of them executing a warrant, releasingthe person and that warrant not being erased from the Justice Courtsystem. That could result in a second unwarranted arrest, Thamessaid, which could result in a false arrest lawsuit against thecounty.

“One false arrest because a warrant was not removed from thebooks would cost much more than ($50,000),” Thames said.

Another reason for the upgrade that is just as important, butpossibly not as damaging, Prince said, is that many state andfederal agencies are requiring Internet reporting of mandatedissues and the current system is not prepared for that.

The $50,000 price tag was the best received when the project wasbid, Prince said.

“We did take bids and this is the only one we received,” hesaid.

Included in the bid was a service maintenance contract at anadditional cost. The board could opt for a three year plan at$13,000 or a five year plan at $21,000 if they decided to take amaintenance contract.

Prince recommended the board accept the five year contract toavoid going three years and then needing repairs and having to payit for it themselves.

The board agreed and approved the purchase of the upgrade andthe five year maintenance contract.

In other matters, interim Tax Assessor/Collector Jeff Petersonreported that delinquent property taxes exceeded $9,000 on 50parcels of land. He also said the county recently sold 401 parcelsof delinquent tax land at public auction for $85,369.01.

Mobile homes with delinquent taxes owed will be turned over tothe Justice Court in December, Peterson said, to start proceedingsthere.

Paul McLain, director of the Lawrence County CommunityDevelopment Association, informed the board that a ground-breakingfor the new portion of the Highway 84 expansion will be held at10:30 a.m. Sept. 11 at the national guard armory.

The final county budget hearing and decision to approve thereported budget will be held at 9 a.m. Friday in thecourthouse.