Jasper Utilities: Server costs higher than expected

A discussion about a $73,000 server based in the utility department and shared with the civil city took up most of the discussion of the Jasper Utility Service Board meeting Monday night.

Utility General Manager Bud Hauersperger told the board that the cost of the server including consulting fees and contingency fee is $73,921.79.

From the existing server usage, the board determined that they would split the cost between the utilities and civil city 65-3. Utilities will pay $48,049.16.

Hauersperger told the board that they had only budgeted $41,000. Of that, $16,000 was for regular computers, and $25,000 for a new server.

He said that the cost estimate for the server was made about a year ago at the $25,000.00 amount and that amount didn’t include a consultant fee or contingency.

The $48,049.16 overshadows the $25,000.00. Hauersperger told the board that each department on the utility side could contribute funds from their own computer budget to make up the difference.

He said that the combined department computer funds amount to $183,774.00. He said that money will be drawn out of each department’s computer funds in a formula set by the utility department.

The draw from the other departments will be $23,049.16. The board approved the amount.

That amount includes the $10,290.00 for contract services for Brian Scott with Technology Dynamics.

The board also heard an update from Bud Hauersperger on the Beaver Lake Spillway project.

He expects it will be completed in November. He reported that a quarter of the demolition removing 9 inches off of the top is done. However, when they got the concrete removed, they found that they needed more rebar, so a change order for $1515.00 was approved to add what is needed. And a change order was also requested and approved to fill a 125-foot crack with epoxy for $2,500.00.

Also:

City attorney Renee Kabrick reported that the city can save about $24,000 per year by entering into a contract for a Phone Service Agreement with Frontier Communications. She asked the board to approve changing over to Frontier based on a per minute fee. The estimated savings of $24,000 per year for the entire city made this an easy motion to pass.