CLEARFIELD – At Monday night’s meeting, the Lawrence Township Supervisors approved purchasing a new computer system for the Lawrence Township Municipal Building.
Secretary/Treasurer Barbara Shaffner requested the supervisors purchase two, new desktop computers for her and the code enforcement officer. Supervisor Ed Brown said he’d prefer a server/terminal system, which would cost more now but save in the long-term.
Shaffner said they’re currently using computers that have not been replaced since 2010. The supervisors said the computers had been purchased three years ago this month.
Shaffner explained they had computer problems earlier Tuesday, but they’d been fixed at least for the time being. However, she said it’d been the second time in six weeks that her computer needed to be fixed.
“The boot sequence isn’t right. [The computers] are doing what they want,” said Code Enforcement Officer Agatha Lauder-English.
Shaffner said the computer was reading the CD-drive before attempting to read the hard drive. Although it’d been fixed, she was concerned about the issue reoccurring sometime when payroll was due.
“They’ve been over to the repair shop. Fine and dandy for a little bit,” said Supervisor William Lawhead.
Shaffner presented the supervisors with a quote for $1,320 for two computer towers. She said they’d save some by having the operating system licenses transferred over so long as their existing towers were disposed of.
She said if the township wanted one or both of the current towers, it would need to purchase a new operating system license for any kept. She said the new towers included solid state drives in their specifications.
“You can say what you want, but I think it is time we go to a central server,” said Brown. He said a single server would mean a more powerful central computer to be shared and accessed by everyone.
He added it’d be one machine to be maintained. In addition, he said it could be accessed remotely for service and wouldn’t even need to be physically housed in the building.
Brown also said software licenses would be cheaper, as they’d only need one computer license and a cheaper per person license rather than a full license for each tower.
The supervisors settled the debate, as it didn’t have a quote for a server system. They were also uncertain how much longer Shaffner’s computer would last.
Shaffner said she needed a computer at the office, and she couldn’t go without one if it needed to be taken for repairs.
The supervisors voted to authorize Shaffner to obtain pricing information and to spend up to $5,000 on a computer system.