ELLSWORTH – Hancock County has to do something fast about its computer system, according to experts who met Wednesday with the county’s commissioners.

The county’s computer system actually is several unconnected systems which are not standardized with one another, according to the experts, who briefly surveyed the county’s computer equipment Wednesday morning. The county’s computers also are sorely lacking in security measures, they said.

“We didn’t find a lot of normalcy out there,” said Tom Gillen, an information technology expert who works for Washington Hancock Community Agency. “Security is kind of scary. There is none.”

Michelle Gray, a computer expert who used to work for Prexar, said the county needs to get its computers up to industry standards in order to have them reliably maintained.

“Everything is literally pieced together and Band-Aided together,” Gray said.

Commissioners voted 3-0 to hire WHCA to help the county find a computer services firm that can modernize the county’s hodgepodge computer system.

The county hopes to have such a firm assess the county’s computer equipment and needs and to update the computers and network them so administrative functions such as payroll and purchase orders can be standardized throughout the county’s departments.

Whether the county wants to have an outside firm or an in-house employee maintain the updated system has not been decided.

The county used to have an in-house computer specialist but the position was eliminated three years ago at the urging of the county’s budget advisory committee.

Gillen suggested that Hancock County’s government is large enough that the county could justify having its own in-house computer specialist.

With the amount of computer maintenance the county requires, he said, it would be cheaper and more effective to do it in-house than to pay an outside specialist to do it, he said.

“It’s going to cost you, period,” Gillen said. “I think you could easily support [a staff position] with the number of users you have.”

Tim King, WHCA executive director, told commissioners the agency is hoping to establish a consortium to help small nonprofits in the two counties address their computer needs. The agency is not in a position, however, to offer the county anything other than expert advice, he said.

“We’re not prepared to offer you the level of service that I think you need,” King said.

Some county computers use programs that were created by Doug Ashmore, the county’s former in-house computer specialist, Sheriff Bill Clark told the commissioners.

Ashmore, who now has his own computer services company, works freelance for the county but has told county officials he will not perform any work for the county after the end of the year.

Clark and other county officials said that by losing Ashmore’s services, they all of a sudden will be unable to consult with anyone who fully understands the programs they use.

“We don’t even have anyone in-house who knows how to write [computer service] specs,” the sheriff said.

Commissioner Chairman Ken Shea said that since the in-house position was eliminated, the county has saved money in its annual information technology budget. But others at Wednesday’s meeting suggested that has contributed to the county’s current problem.

So far, county officials are proposing to fund the county’s 2005 information technology budget at $26,300, according to Hancock County Clerk Ray Bickford.

Officials have estimated that, between salary and benefits, an in-house computer specialist position likely would cost the county more than $50,000.

“We’ve got to do something, commissioners,” said District Attorney Michael Povich. “We can’t just sit here and continue what we’re doing.”

Specialized programs – such as the Spillman system in the Sheriff’s Department, the Justware software in the District Attorney’s Office and the Enhanced 911 system in the regional communications center – should continue to be maintained by the specific firms that already provide those services to the county, experts said.