Krissy Bartness has always loved facing the various challenges that come up in court administration.

“Every day’s kind of a challenge here; you learn something new,” she said.

Now Bartness, 48, is leading that department after being sworn in as Mower County’s court administrator Wednesday at the Jail and Justice Center. She takes over for Patty Ball, who retired last month.

Bartness, a 1985 Lyle High School graduate, takes over a department with about 12 employees that works closely with law enforcement, the judges and many other departments.

“I was excited to have a new challenge and look forward to starting,” she said.

After working with the county for 24 years, Bartness isn’t a new face for the office; however, Mower County courts have seen plenty of change in the last year. Along with Ball’s retirement, judges Donald Rysavy and Fred Wellmann retired last year, and new judges Jeffrey Kritzer and Kevin Siefken took the bench last summer.

But Bartness said the transitions have gone smoothly thus far, and she credited the many good employees in her office.

Bartness, however, inherits some challenges as administrator. One will be managing and scheduling the high volume of court cases in the county. Though Mower County has the caseload need for about 2.9 judges, it only has two sitting judges.

“Trying to keep that flow going is what the challenge is,” Bartness said.

Equalization judges visit from Olmsted, Freeborn and Fillmore counties about 84 days a year to help fill the need.

Another challenge is the electronic filing of court documents.

Mower, like other counties, has a July 2016 deadline for lawyers, county departments and other agencies to file court documents electronically.

“We’re well on our way,” said Bartness, who anticipates Mower will meet the deadline.

The county is currently filing existing current court documents online and will eventually destroy paper copies.

“It’ll have its challenges, of course, but it will be easier,” Bartness said.

When she’s not working, Bartness enjoys spending time outdoors, especially being around a lake or fishing, with her husband, Ken. The couple has two children: Zack, 11, and Izabella, 8.

After several years living in austin, the family moved near Hunt Lake in Faribault to live on a lake and spend more time outdoors; however, it still allows Bartness to continue her work in Austin.

“This job has been my life, and I wanted to stay working here,” she said. “It’s close enough that I could still commute.”