The North Lincoln County Annex is poised to get a new security system.

County commissioners gave Ernie Anderson, director of information technology, tacit approval to move ahead with the acquisition at their Dec. 16 meeting. The upgrade will allow county officials to alter who can access the facility, a capability they currently lack at the annex, Anderson said.

“We need a system that the county employees can access, one we can configure new [key] fobs or create new passcodes for, add or remove profiles and make changes for hours of operation and after-hours operation,” Anderson told commissioners.

At present, officials do not know how many fobs or passcodes have been issued to the building. Because they cannot alter the security system, there is no way to disable unused codes or fobs, Anderson said.

“Right now, the system works, but we have no control over it,” said County Commissioner Josh Letcher (D-3).

The cost for the new system will come to a little more than $4,500, Anderson said. That covers entry access — think fob readers and keypads — and a new alarm system.

Anderson said Grizzly Security Alarms was the sole company to bid for the project.

The county also will need to pay $40 a month for a monitoring fee. When County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) asked what that entailed, Anderson said it covered system failures and alerting authorities in the event of a break-in.

Anderson likened the system to what authorities have adopted for the third floor of the courthouse in Libby. That was built in-house, he said, and does not have a monitoring plan.

Letcher said the new system gives officials the ability to better keep tabs on when employees are coming and going. Anderson also can assign temporary passcodes for groups that meet in the annex, Letcher said.

Anderson said he came before the board to answer any questions. Although commissioners did not vote on the matter — a vote was not required — they gave him backing to move forward with the project.