Communications-related issues discussed
County working on website compliance, phone system
The Logan County Commissioners had a couple of topics to discuss with Emergency Manager Jerry Casebolt during their work session Tuesday.
Casebolt presented information about HB21-1110, known as the Digital Access Law. The law requires all Colorado government websites to meet accessibility requirements, with a July 1, 2024 deadline. Casebolt recently attended a conference on compliance and shared some information from the conference, including some companies that can assist with evaluating and potentially fixing the county’s websites. He said he had also run a tool provided by the state on the county’s homepage and found some alerts that need to be addressed. None of them were critical, but Casebolt said he doesn’t know how to fix the problems it found.
According to Casebolt, the guidance he’s gotten from state officials is that the July 1 deadline means that the county must be taking steps to become compliant, but the work doesn’t have to be complete at that time.
The commissioners discussed the need for training county employees on how to ensure any new content on the website meets the requirements going forward so that it remains compliant. In addition to the county’s main website, they will also need to ensure compliance on the websites for the county assessor, county treasurer, sheriff’s office and the fair.
Casebolt said he’d reach out to the companies and get estimates on what it will cost to have the sites evaluated, as well as the additional cost to have the company do the work to bring them into compliance.
Casebolt has also been working on getting information about purchasing a new telephone system for the county. He noted that right now, the only facility that has a critical need for a new system is the sheriff’s office, which would also include the District Attorney’s office at the Logan County Justice Center. Their phone system is no longer supported, which means if the system goes down they will be without phone service unless the county can figure out how to fix it. The phones they use are proprietary for that system, and a few are not working.
The commissioners had previously discussed possibly replacing the phone system in all county facilities just so they would all be on the same platform. Casebolt noted one advantage of that is the ability to transfer callers to an office in another building; ie. from the courthouse to the Justice Center.
There were some questions about the bids Casebolt presented concerning monthly service charges and the difference between a cloud-based system versus what they currently have, which includes an on-site server that hosts the phone system.
Finance Director Debbie Unrein suggested that the county should also seek a bid from its current phone provider and get a more complete picture of what it would cost to switch just the Sheriff’s Office versus the cost for all of the county facilities before the commissioners make a decision. The cost for new phones could come out of the county’s sales and use tax revenue, but monthly service fees would need to be broken out by department.
Commissioner Joe Mcbride said he thinks the county should more forward with upgrading the Sheriff’s Office phone system, and make a decision on the rest during the budget process for next year.
Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg, on the other hand, felt that if the county is going to update its systems, it should do so across the board. He was concerned, however, by the increase in monthly fees, which was higher than he expected, because, he said, he is worried about next year’s budget.
Before the meeting adjourned, Casebolt brought one other communications-related issue to the commissioners’ attention. He said the generator for the TV translator tower north of North Sterling Reservoir has been out of commission for months. It took six months for the county to source parts for it and another couple of months to get them, but when the parts were installed it didn’t fix the problem.
The generator is also used for the digital trunking radio system tower that’s located at the same site, and the state has contacted Casebolt about the need to repair it.
Casebolt said because of its age, he’s not sure the generator can be repaired, and he doesn’t want to keep “throwing money at (it)” if that’s the case. He’s looking into the cost to replace it, perhaps with a used generator, and told the commissioners that the E-911 board should share the cost for the replacement since it is part of the public safety communications system.