Dunn County commissioners on Tuesday authorized the immediate internal posting of a new IT coordinator position and approved hiring an administrative communications assistant to support expanding county communications work.

The county auditor presented a job description and rationale for the IT coordinator, saying the role would not replace outside IT contractors but would act as an in‑house point of contact for day‑to‑day support, inventory and training. The auditor said other counties with similar roles budgeted about $85,000 annually for the position and recommended first opening the job to internal applicants.

"There is a vast amount of technology related things that are not gonna go away," the auditor said, arguing that a county staff person could shorten response times for printers, software and server issues and coordinate with outside vendors for cybersecurity and server administration.

Commissioners approved a motion to open the IT coordinator posting internally. The board also authorized hiring a communications administrative assistant to support the county’s growing communications workload — including web updates, social media, event coordination and TextMyGov messaging — with an estimated salary of about $65,000. Commissioners said the county’s communications staff had been working significant extra hours and that additional support was needed to sustain outreach and services.

Both measures passed by voice votes; staff will proceed with internal recruitment and return with candidate recommendations.