By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The machines are at it again. Barton County Attorney Levi Morris announced at Wednesday's commission meeting that, due to technological advancements, his office will not be refilling an upcoming vacancy. Staff in the office will be reduced from 14 to 13 employees.
"Somebody is leaving to take an opportunity someplace else," Morris said. "I'm not going to fill the position. Just simple things like better leveraging of technologies we already had, and rewriting the book in terms of how paperwork is handled, and files are handled, we've become overstaffed. We've kind of been there a while, and I was just waiting for the next opening to do it."
Morris said a closet on the fourth floor of the courthouse has been filled with files. Staff has worked to convert some of the files to a digital format to help free up some 800 square feet of additional office space in the building.
"Our excess personnel has been scanning and digitizing the files we need or want to keep, throwing out the ones we don't want or need to keep, and going through the files we have to keep forever," Morris said. "We're kind of reclaiming that office space."
The county attorney's office has already submitted an updated budget to reflect fewer employee salaries.