Highway Department getting computer, alarm upgrades

The Town Board has approved upgrading various Highway Department equipment.

Among the authorized expenditures is $3,875 for a fire-detection system and $1,308 for a system to back up computer data.

“The Highway Department has three old PCs, which have a lot of data on them but not backed up,” Councilman Allan Scherr said.

The board also approved paying $49 per month to Spectrum for a higher-speed internet connection and another $7.50 per month for monitoring and security services.

“We looked at using the servers we have here [at the Town Hall] as a backup, and it turns out the internet connect from the highway office is very low performance,” Scherr said.

Scherr said the fire-detection and alarm system “is basically inoperable.”

“It’s not monitoring remotely,” he said. “So if the alarm goes off and nobody’s there, it won’t be heard.”

Town Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia said problems with the alarm system were identified during a recent incident.

“It just happened to be during work hours, and we realized there’s no remote detection down there,” she said.

The alarm company Rest Assured was the lowers of three bidders for the fire-detection work and has been awarded the job.

The town also is considering spending $8,000 on a fire-suppression system for the Highway Department’s fuel-dispensing station and possibly splitting the cost with other users, including the village, the school district and the fire department.