Tyrone Borough council has approved an upgrade for the municipality’s computer systems at a potential cost of up to $26,000, according to borough manager Nathan George.
New operating software, a printer and computers had already been ordered for the police department and will soon be ready to be installed, explained George in a written report to council.
“We want to upgrade the entire borough system plus the police department upgrade will require a new server,” said George. “One benefit of the police department upgrade is they will now use the same type of software as the county. This means, for dispatches, the borough and the county will be automatically interfaced.”
George indicated the current server is four years old and lacks the capacity to run the police department’s new operating software. He also noted many computers are in need of replacement.
The estimated cost of the new server has been placed at $7,230. The overall project is estimated to cost $25,736.
“We have several computers which are as old as 1996,” George told The Daily Herald. “In the future we will deal with these like vehicles, they’ll be part of the capital maintenance program and will be replaced every so many years.
“What we are trying to do is get everybody up to speed and put everyone on the same page,” said George.
He also noted everyone will have access to a calendar on the system which will allow for better internal communication and coordination.
At last week’s meeting, there was also a recommendation to upgrade the memory in the system’s hard drive.
George referred specifics about more detailed information on the computer upgrades to Phyllis Garhart, the borough’s finance administrator. However, Garhart was not available for comment this morning. The computer systems upgrade has $2,400 budgeted for contingency according to a printout which the borough made available.
The upgrades for the police department totaled $3,948 while the total cost of for the work stations and associated labor for both the police department and administration totaled $9,606. The plan also includes user license fees for Microsoft Office 2003 at a cost of $6,500.
