County officials don’t need a budget on the book until Jan. 1.

But the planning process is well underway with budget meetings held with each county department this week.

Those sessions wrapped up Thursday afternoon.

“Most departments did their best to try to hold the line on costs,” Commissioner Tricia Durbin said.

The hearings served to bring departmental budgetary information together in a timely way.

Lisa Hagberg, director of finance and administration, said the sessions provided a deadline for budgetary information from the county’s departments.

The hearings didn’t bring any surprises, the commissioners said.

Hagberg noted increases in supplies and other costs as well as supply chain issues.

“The department heads are trying to stay status quo to weather this,” she said.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston and Commissioner Ben Kafferlin both called this these smoothest budget sessions they have overseen as commissioners.

They credited the documentation prepared by the department heads and Eggleston added that the departments are functioning under budget for the past parts. He said they also knew in advance the requests that were coming.

Durbin highlighted infrastructure issues “that aren’t unrealistic requests but add up.”

There was some discussion about the need to paint portions of the exterior of the courthouse.

Eggleston said the county unsuccessfully sought grant funding to assist and said he would look to strengthen that application for future submissions.