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We talked with Kirk Perkins yesterday, who handled the first search for the county attorney and is now working on the second search to find someone for the county's top legal post.

Currently the attorney's office is outscored to a firm charging $275 an hour. And the budget for the attorney's office was increased by $250,000 for administrative and legal needs in the 2009-10 budget.

After Sharron Kurtz resigned under what looked to be pressure from the Board of Commissioners in December, the county had trouble keeping the county attorney's seat filled. And they had a hard time finding qualified applicants for the position earlier this year.

Perhaps those conditions led to the county looking to get an outside firm.

Nonetheless, a new search is on, Perkins said.

"We would like to have some on board in 60 days," he said. An outside firm is handling the search this time, unlike last time, when a group of local attorneys and county staff handled the matter.

"I think that time always gives you a little distance from negative publicity or perceived negative publicity," Perkins said.

He said that the firm is working on gathering applicants and he expects the county attorney search committee to meet and review those in the next couple weeks.