Merrimack County commissioners approve technology and safety spending; corrections report flags rising overtime

The Merrimack County Board of Commissioners on a series of voice votes approved a $63,000 purchase to replace an expiring computing cluster, a contract to upgrade the nursing home’s call‑system to add reporting, and authorized soliciting bids for paving a heavily used walkway for an amount not to exceed $40,000. Commissioners also voted to nominate new corrections superintendent Garrett Jewell to the New Hampshire Association of Counties’ executive committee and heard a briefing that corrections overtime is running above the current budgeted level.

The actions were taken during the board’s regular meeting; all formal motions recorded on the public agenda were approved by voice vote or roll call. The county will enter a nonpublic session afterward on personnel under RSA 91‑A:3 II(a).

Why it matters: the purchases and paving authorization affect county operations and resident care at county facilities now and through the winter; the corrections overtime briefing signals a budget pressure likely to reappear in next year’s budget process.

Thomas Trumbull Jr., a staff member who presented the technology request, told the board the county’s “scale computing cluster which is hardware and to support servers for the entire South Campus was going to be expiring this November.” He said the county had received vendor quotes ranging from $119,000 down to $63,000 and requested approval to buy the system at the lower price because the…