Clay Trustees upgrade technology
Brookville Star
2019-03-27
Kay Dawson
Contributing Writer
CLAY TOWNSHIP - Technical matters opened the Clay Township Trustees’ March 4 meeting.
Trustees approved five new Mobile Data Terminals for the police. The current ones are old laptops and are running Windows 7, which will not be supported after this year. The township also replaced Chief John Van Gundy’s flip top phone.
“Welcome to the 21st century,” Trustee Jeff Requarth quipped, bringing chuckles from Northmont High School students attending the meeting as a social science assignment.
Trustee President Steve Woolf reported he and Fiscal Officer Brad Limbert had “a positive meeting” with Hunting Bank officials about enabling residents to pay utility bills online with credit cards or Automatic Clearing House transfers.
“We were cautioned that there are a lot of regulations about compliance,” he said. “You’re responsible for people’s data if you do in-house credit card processing, and we could be sued individually or as a township if there’s a data breach. This applies to ACH transfers, too. There are pitfalls we didn’t know about.”
With data breaches more common, Trustee Dave Vore suggested asking what other government entities do.
Requarth suggested trustees postpone work on fire contracts with Brookville, Phillipsburg and Verona until September.
“They run until Dec. 31. Four months should be enough time.”
Talk then turned to roads, with Woolf offering a report by himself and Road Superintendent Chris Maleski of roads needing repairs now. The township still may receive grant money for some major road projects but even if received, work couldn’t start until 2020.
Woolf warned, “These other projects need to be done now. They can’t take another harsh summer and winter.”
Repairs were estimated at $27,000, and he suggested an optional project to have the service road from the township building to the cemetery, a cost of $16,990. Although not a public drive, he said, people are using it.
When Requarth questioned why there was only one quote, Woolf explained this vendor was the lowest of all the quotes last year. Since the total is under $50,000, the township doesn’t need to ask for bids.
Speaking of the cemetery drive, Vore declared, “We don’t need to justify it. We just need to get it done. We have been talking about it for five years.
Trustees accepted the motion with Vore’s change of 60 percent of the financing from the Joint Economic Development District funds and 40 percent from road funds.
Requarth said he has learned that work on the Brookville-Salem intersection with Route 49 will start in June and take two or three months.
Woolf offered “kudos” to Administrative Assistant Michele Williams for finding the right person at Republic when notified that trash from a trash truck was blowing along Arlington Road during a windy day last week.
“By the time my wife and I got out there with trash bags, Republic was already out there cleaning up,” said Woolf.
Trustees approved five new Mobile Data Terminals for the police. The current ones are old laptops and are running Windows 7, which will not be supported after this year. The township also replaced Chief John Van Gundy’s flip top phone.
“Welcome to the 21st century,” Trustee Jeff Requarth quipped, bringing chuckles from Northmont High School students attending the meeting as a social science assignment.
Trustee President Steve Woolf reported he and Fiscal Officer Brad Limbert had “a positive meeting” with Hunting Bank officials about enabling residents to pay utility bills online with credit cards or Automatic Clearing House transfers.
“We were cautioned that there are a lot of regulations about compliance,” he said. “You’re responsible for people’s data if you do in-house credit card processing, and we could be sued individually or as a township if there’s a data breach. This applies to ACH transfers, too. There are pitfalls we didn’t know about.”
With data breaches more common, Trustee Dave Vore suggested asking what other government entities do.
Requarth suggested trustees postpone work on fire contracts with Brookville, Phillipsburg and Verona until September.
“They run until Dec. 31. Four months should be enough time.”
Talk then turned to roads, with Woolf offering a report by himself and Road Superintendent Chris Maleski of roads needing repairs now. The township still may receive grant money for some major road projects but even if received, work couldn’t start until 2020.
Woolf warned, “These other projects need to be done now. They can’t take another harsh summer and winter.”
Repairs were estimated at $27,000, and he suggested an optional project to have the service road from the township building to the cemetery, a cost of $16,990. Although not a public drive, he said, people are using it.
When Requarth questioned why there was only one quote, Woolf explained this vendor was the lowest of all the quotes last year. Since the total is under $50,000, the township doesn’t need to ask for bids.
Speaking of the cemetery drive, Vore declared, “We don’t need to justify it. We just need to get it done. We have been talking about it for five years.
Trustees accepted the motion with Vore’s change of 60 percent of the financing from the Joint Economic Development District funds and 40 percent from road funds.
Requarth said he has learned that work on the Brookville-Salem intersection with Route 49 will start in June and take two or three months.
Woolf offered “kudos” to Administrative Assistant Michele Williams for finding the right person at Republic when notified that trash from a trash truck was blowing along Arlington Road during a windy day last week.
“By the time my wife and I got out there with trash bags, Republic was already out there cleaning up,” said Woolf.