In an effort to continue efficiencies at the county engineer’s office Engineer Doug Cade has asked for an increase of about $30,000 in the portion of his budget funded by the county commissioners.

At a budget hearing Tuesday Cade submitted a proposal requesting $119,274 for next year, compared to the current appropriation of $86,100.

Much of that extra funding would be used to upgrade computerized engineering workstations in the office and salaries. Right now the office has no backup for its AutoCAD drawing system.

The county’s portion would include $40,000 in salaries, $10,000 in supplies, $10,000 in equipment and $3,000 in contract repair.

The majority of the engineer’s budget comes from the Motor Vehicle Gas Tax that last year provided $4,272,500.

“That has to be used for highway purposes,” Cade told the commissioners.

Those funds come from auto registration, gas excise tax and fines.

“That is guaranteed money every year,” he said. “Normally it only fluctuates about two percent. That is a steady revenue.”

Among the efficiencies Cade has imposed since taking office earlier this year include buying repair material for roadways in the eastern end from businesses in that location; using pre-cast box culverts instead of box beam for bridge repair and high-density polyethylene versus metal pipe.

The change in pipe brought about a savings of $3,000 per pipe. Switching to pre-cast culverts was a savings of $30,000 per structure. The box beam bridge costs approximately $70,000 compared to the pre-cast that comes in at $40,000.

Much of that cost comes from man hours in building the box beam.

“It is not only material, but manpower,” Cade said.

The county commissioners are expecting figures on next year’s insurance premiums as they put together data for next year’s budget.

“This seems to be reasonable,” Commission President Les Boggs told Cade. “But we are expecting decreased revenue and are waiting to get insurance quotes.”

Boggs expects a final budget by the first part of November.