DOVER-FOXCROFT – The possibility that a person with no accounting background could be elected county treasurer caused Piscataquis County commissioners on Tuesday to form a committee to look into possible record-keeping changes.

Donna Hathaway, a certified public accountant and the town’s treasurer, informed commissioners earlier that she does not plan to seek re-election.

The move to form the committee actually was a recommendation of county department heads and interim County Manager Owen Pratt. They suggested now is the time to put a more “user-friendly” system in place and to move the accounting work back into the commissioners’ office.

The standing information technology committee will consist of Tom Harvey as chairman, department heads, the county manager and the commissioners’ staff. The goal is to implement a new accounting system gradually, integrating it with payroll before the end of Hathaway’s term.

The idea is to have a person on staff who would do the accounting procedures with the part-time county treasurer as overseer.

Hathaway suggested to the commissioners on Tuesday that the person they select to do the day-to-day accounting should be included on the study committee.

Department heads would like a system that would network their departments so they could view their individual accounts at their own computer stations.

Hathaway said the accounting system in place could provide that function.

At Hathaway’s request, the commissioners voted to reduce the county’s contingency account to $50,000. The account had inched up to about $125,000, $25,000 more than state law allowed. She said there was about $75,000 in the account and then $50,000 was included in the recently adopted county budget.

Because of their intent to have $50,000 in the budget, the commissioners agreed to transfer $75,000 to the surplus account.