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WALKER-Consistent electronics, improved services and saving money were among the reasons Cass County Board voted Thursday to engage some new contracted services.

Rather than purchase individual licenses when the county buys new personal computers, the county now will switch to a cloud-based Microsoft Office software program for all its personal computers purchased for employees.

The county has been purchasing new personal computer equipment a few units at a time on a rotating basis for employees and licensing Microsoft Office individually with each new purchase.

Under the new contract program, all personal devices will get an upgrade in 2017. Microsoft will then upgrade each regularly, so all devices the county owns consistently will operate with the same version in all years.

Tim Richardson, central services director, said the county's annual $55,000 per year cost for Microsoft Office will remain about the same, but all devices (personal computers, laptops, tablets, smart phones) will have the same version and same upgrades as they come out. Data can consistently be shared among all of them.

Microsoft's cloud-based service will improve security and will offer backup, so documents and email will not be lost if an individual device's hard drive crashes.

The county will save about $17,000 for new equipment costs in 2017, Richardson said.

The board also authorized Richardson to spend $16,281 for a Honeywell energy manager. The device briefly will shut down or reduce output on the county's building heating and cooling systems at Walker to save energy when peak usage is hit.

He said the payback will be two to three years on electric usage costs.

Minnesota Power, the county's electricity provider in Walker, charges a higher per kilowatt hour rate for usage above a certain level if that level is hit at any time during a 15 minute period in a given month.

This can easily push the county into the higher rate, especially during hot summer months, Richardson said.

He expects using the demand load monitor and temporary slow-down or shut-down feature to drop the county's electric demand charges by 25 to 40 percent.

Heidi Tumberg, Health, Human and Veterans Services fiscal supervisor, obtained board approval to engage Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership of Moorhead to take over the county's child care assistance program.

The county will leave vacant one staff position, which has been performing this service.

Duties to be performed include licensing child care providers, renewing licenses, determining program eligibility for clients and paying child care claims. The county would continue doing provider background checks.

Seven other counties already use Lakes and Pines, Tumberg said. They reported satisfaction with the program, she said.

Their annual contract will cost $51,482 in 2017, she said. The county will save $19,612 in administrative costs and $67,217 in an eligibility worker's wages and benefits for a new annual savings of $35,347 after paying Lakes and Pines, Tumberg said.

She expects to transition into the new contract by April or May of 2017.

Tumberg reported the overall HHVS budget for 2016 shows expenditures of $14,628,555 through October or about 1 percent over budget projections. She said some reimbursements are paid to the county quarterly, so the fact revenues are on budget should bring revenues up to the expenditure level when all reimbursements have been credited.

The commissioners approved continuing a $38,000 annual contribution to the Cass County/Leech Lake Children's Initiative through 2017.

They accepted a restored Minnesota Department of Health $6,679 grant for public health emergency preparedness that runs through June 30, 2017..

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