Petersburgh Will Seek New Bids For Town Hall Heating System
by Alex Brooks
At its meeting on Thursday August 10, the Petersburgh Town Board rejected all three bids which were submitted previously and opened at a special meeting on Tuesday August 1. The bids varied from a little over $12,000 to a little under $75,000. The Board felt that the low bidder was closer to what they had in mind to spend, but since they had advertised for conversion to a hot water system, and the way to get a reasonable price seemed to be keeping it a steam system, they decided to write specifications for a steam boiler, oil-fired, re-using the existing radiators and seek new bids. The new bids will be due the last day of August, so there should be time to get the new system installed before the cold weather comes.
The Board also authorized Town Clerk Deidra Michaels to sign a contract for a records management consultant and records management staff to organize and put in good order Town records so that they can be retrieved when wanted. The contract is with K. Sickler Murphy, for a little over $15,000. These costs will be paid by a records management grant awarded to the Town of Petersburgh in early June. The total amount of the grant is $31,365. The other half of it will be used for physical renovation of the records room and equipment. The bids for renovation of the records room are due August 18.
The Board also heard a presentation from David Vitti of BAS. Vitti said the letters in his company’s name stand for Business Automation Services, and their slogan is, “transforming the way government works.” Vitti had inspected the Town’s computer systems and found significant vulnerabilities, and his proposal was aimed at providing security and reliability for the Town’s computer systems. He proposed to put in a new server, firewall and battery backup, as well as clean up network cabling and re-configure the network. The installation would involve $3,100 for hardware and $3,120 for labor, making an initial investment of $6,220. This would require quarterly payments of $525 for BAS IT support, $84 for anti-virus and malware protection, and $465 for Business Continuity and disaster recovery services through a company called Datto, which would be a total payment of $1074 per quarter.
The Board acknowledged the need to upgrade its network and IT services support, and seemed to be OK with an initial investment of the kind proposed by Vitti, but had trouble with an ongoing expense of $4,300 every year. Councilwoman Amy Schaaphok called the quarterly payment, “hard to swallow.” They began talking with Vitti about scaling back his proposal somewhat and finding a less expensive alternative. No conclusions were reached about whether to accept, reject, or modify his proposal, but it appears there will be continuing conversation with BAS to find a package that will suit the Town’s needs.