A computer upgrade should help keep Independence Township departments on the same page.
The Department of Public Works is seeking an upgrade from Novell to Windows operating systems, so it would be compatible with the rest of the township.
Trustees voted unanimously Oct. 2 to approve the plan, costing $22,712.35 to be split equally between water and sewer fund balance.
The computer operating system at township hall was upgraded from Novell to Windows this past January.
Clerk Shelagh VanderVeen said Novell is an ‘antiquated system.?
DPW Director Linda Richardson said e-mail on the Novell system could only be checked on work computers.
‘You couldn’t access it from home, if you were on vacation. You had to be right here (at work) to access it,? she said.
When the township switched to Outlook Express e-mail, it was difficult to send mass e-mails because DPW is using Novell, which didn’t have enough memory, Richardson said.
‘I have to go through and look up everybody’s e-mail. You can’t just start typing and it will show up and you have to type (each individual e-mail) in exactly,? she said. ‘Right now, it’s just time consuming.?
Being on the same system as the township will make e-mails a lot easier, she said.
According to Matt Shelly from Tech Resources, upgrading the DPW to Windows would also allow the DPW and the township to be on one network.
‘It will help get rid of some of the redundancy as far as equipment by having one network instead of different little networks in each of the buildings,? he said.