FORT DODGE — The Webster County Attorney’s Office was approved Tuesday to provide assistance once a week to the Hamilton County Attorney’s Office as part of a new sharing agreement.

The agreement was approved by the Webster County Board of Supervisors at its regular board meeting. This is the first time the two county attorney’s offices have shared duties.

According to Webster County Attorney Darren Driscoll, he was contacted by the current Hamilton County Assistant Attorney Jonathan Beaty in February. Beaty indicated that he was looking at transitioning out of the role as he is also the full-time Humboldt County attorney. In the part-time assistant attorney role, Beaty has been assisting County Attorney Pat Chambers.

“He wanted to see if Webster County could assist on a part-time basis handling some of the duties in their district associate court,” said Driscoll. “It would be roughly one attorney day per week on average.”

The Hamilton County Attorney’s Office will pay Webster County $60,000 annually in $15,000 quarterly payments as part of the agreement.

“I spoke with my attorneys and we determined that we could handle it by re-shifting some duties,” said Driscoll. “With that $60,000, that gave us an opportunity, because as the board is aware of budget constraints, that would allow my office to increase salaries for the attorneys because we’re taking on additional work to get us closer to being competitive for what my highly skilled attorney pool is valued at.”

The agreement was passed by the Hamilton County Supervisors two weeks ago. With the Webster County Board of Supervisors’ vote of approval, the sharing agreement will begin on April 28.

“It’s a good way to solve a problem that we had and a problem that they had,” said Driscoll. “This may very well be the way of the future because attorney numbers are dwindling in rural communities so it’s quite possible Webster County could be a hub when smaller communities are looking for lawyers and can’t find them for their prosecutors offices.”