In a step to start addressing the county's aging copier resource, the Harrison County Commissioners Court will consider purchasing a new copier for 71st District Judge Brad Morin in order to meet the demands of the high volume of copies made through his office.
The item is one of the main requests the judge made to commissioners during a budget workshop hearing conducted by the court in May.
"The copier in my office has over 300,000 copies that have gone through it. We could stand a new copier. We're on the last legs on the one that we have right now," Morin told the commissioners court then.
He said his office tried to swap out the copier with Justice of the Peace Judge Kent Alford's old copier, but the copier was already worn after producing about 100,000 copies. He also conferred with Information Director Charles Nenninger about the possibility of leasing one.
Commissioner William Hatfield said he's seen the copy quality that comes from the copier in Judge Morin's office and agrees it needs to be replaced.
"We do need to address it," he said at the budget hearing.
Harrison County Judge Hugh Taylor said the county's copier fleet is 10 to 12 years old, and they will have to start looking at investing in new integrated machines in the future.
"I have suggested that we will see more and more of that over the next 24 months because of the age of our copiers," said Taylor. "(With) the integration of the scanning, your fax, your printer and everything being one (machine), maybe we'll save some money on the other items; maybe we won't have to (purchase) a printer next year, things of that nature, with integrated machines."
"We should be able to network everything through these big machines in the future, for the larger volume offices," said Taylor.
If approved, the purchase will be paid from the district court's technology fund.