MASSENA — Village of Massena information technology will get a once-over to determine the village’s needs now and in the future.
Mayor Timothy J. Ahlfeld said there was a particular need for new technology in the police department, where their services were handled by a separate company than one used by the remainder of the village.
“You know that the time I’ve spent here in discussions with the chief, there’s a need for a technology upgrade down there. A lot of people will look at technology as far as what’s sitting on the desktop. But, I’m talking about backbone technology needs, from firewalls, to routers, to wireless access points, to security, cybersecurity, the whole gamut,” he told village trustees.
Police Chief Jason Olson agreed, saying they were at a point where they needed to move up from where they currently were.
“I don’t want to see us kind of spin our wheels. We’ve been spinning our wheels for the past five years. I don’t think we can afford to continue to do that,” he said.
Mr. Ahlfeld said the village currently has a contract with one company that handles the police department’s needs, and another company, Twin State, that handles every other village office.
“I think it might be the time that we get everyone under one umbrella,” he said.
He said they want Twin State to visit and do an analysis of the equipment that’s currently on hand, and offer their recommendation on what it would take to make them more secure.
Mr. Ahlfeld said they could use American Recovery Plan Act funding to help cover the cost. Those funds can be used to support public health expenditures, address the negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, replace lost public sector revenue, provide premium pay for essential workers, and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.
“I’m not saying we’re going to go out and spend every penny of ARPA money that we have on it. But, I believe that we can use some of those ARPA funds for some of these information technology needs,” he said. “Obviously we won’t award anything until I get back to you, hopefully at the November meeting and say, ‘This is the recommendation.’”
He said he’d like to do what others have done — “start a plan where we find the worst work stations and slowly maybe get on a program to upgrade them on a yearly basis and address the needs for how many work stations that we have. If we have too many, then you don’t need to upgrade as many, and that’s one of the things that I want Twin State to look at.”
Gloss