Bartholomew County’s IT department will soon be entirely vacant. The last member of the five-person staff submitted his resignation, effective Friday. The rest of the staff resigned over the past few weeks including a new director who had only been on staff for a few days.

Yesterday, the Bartholomew County Commissioners approved about $12,000 in contracts with Sharp Business Systems to serve as a help desk and to make emergency repairs until the county can rebuild the staff.

The county IT department is in charge of ensuring that county computer systems are operating ranging from essential systems at the dispatch center, jail and county courts, to bookkeeping and administrative systems in the other areas of county government.

The cascade of resignations started last year when long-time IT director Jim Hartsook resigned to take a job outside county government.