In less than a week, the Cole County Commission is scheduled to take a final vote for the 2015 county budget, and budget requests are still coming.
County Assessor Chris Estes asked the commission to allow him to hire two new employees and fill an open position.
The open position is in the residential appraisal department. Estes would also like to hire one person for the commercial appraisal department and one person to do field work.
That would raise his department budget request from $473,000 to $512,504.
Estes said he only has five people on his current staff with appraisal experience after losing several people in the past couple of years with multiple years experience. Hiring experienced people would take more money, he said.
"We've been consistently in the top four counties and sometimes the very top in accuracy for our assessments, according to the state tax commission," Estes said. "To keep that ability we have to have qualified people."
In other business, commissioners welcomed a proposal from Information Systems Director Dale Gibler to re-do the county's website.
Gibler proposed bringing in a third party to work on a system that will bring the page to a more cohesive look, noting that currently each county department has its own process, making hard to navigate the page at times.
"I'd like to see it more app friendly and have the ability for the public to find new regulations and pay bills more easily," he said. "Maybe we could also get more information from the smaller communities in the county about their events and make this a true countywide site."
Gibler estimated this could cost $15,000 to $20,000. Commissioners told Gibler to start working on a proposal.
Also on Tuesday, the commission accepted several subdivision streets into the county road system.
Jaden Court, Christian Ridge, LaLisa Terrace, Sweet Springs Court and Deer Valley Drive were taken in as was part of Homeland Drive. Also taken in was Pleasant Valley Drive from Sweet Springs Court to Old Lohman Road and from Potter Hill Court to Sweet Springs Court.