More new personnel than the county has seen in a long time could be approved by the Dawson County Board of Commissioners when they set the 2019 budget later this year, according to a presentation by Chairman Billy Thurmond last week. Thurmond presented his recommended 2019 budget to the rest of the board on Sept. 27, and recommended the board approve 23 of the 42 positions that department heads requested during budget hearings in August. An additional position has already been granted in the form of an administrative assistant for the public defender’s office. Department heads requested $2.4 million in new positions and salary changes; Thurmond has proposed $932,632 in expenses in the form of 19 full time and four part time positions. “For many departments, the new personnel that is being proposed in this budget will meet the demands of not only today but for several years to come,” Thurmond said to the board. “You will no longer see them come every year asking you for the same thing over and over and over and over again. This budget will eliminate some of that.”