Carbon County's retirement fund rose over $4 million in October.

During the monthly county retirement board meeting on Thursday, Robert Crampsie, county controller and secretary for the retirement board, announced that the retirement fund portfolio as of Oct. 31 was $60,985,597, up $4.4 million from last month."October ended up being a very good month as far as performance," he said.But the good news ended there as Crampsie continued his report.Currently, the county portfolio's rate of return for the year is only 1 percent, which is significantly lower than it had been in June, which was 12.41 percent."It's been a roller coaster all year but we're up at least," Crampsie said. "But we're not anywhere near where we want to be."He also noted that he received word from the Hay Group, the company hired to provide portfolio services, regarding the county's estimated annual required contribution (ARC) for 2012.Crampsie said that as of Oct. 20, the county's ARC is $1,090,000.He pointed out that the actual ARC has been lower than the estimate in past years, but isn't sure about this estimate because the strong portfolio performance isn't there."We would have to see a great end of November and December in performance," Crampsie said. "Otherwise, if everything remains the same, that $1 million ARC will probably remain."In other retirement business, the board met with representatives of Murray Frank LLP of New York, N.Y., regarding monitoring services for the retirement portfolio.Katherine Smith, associate for the firm, introduced Marvin Frank, managing partner.Frank explained that Murray Frank is a class action law firm that specializes in security monitoring and class action lawsuits.He explained what the firm could do for the county and how it could act as another set of eyes in the portfolio to make sure the county's investments are secure. The county currently contracts with two other firms to monitor its portfolio.Following the discussion, the board agreed that it would be beneficial to have a third firm looking over the retirement portfolio and voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with Murray Frank LLP for portfolio monitoring services.