A bad hard drive sector and a power surge that crashed the system severely limited the village of Liverpool’s computer capabilities this year.
Last month, however, village trustees approved an emergency purchase not to exceed $20,000 so that village government could replace its server and rewire its computer system. The work – by The Garam Group of Fayetteville – neared its final stages last week.
“We should be able to get our new Website up within a few days,” said Deputy Village Clerk Sandra Callahan.
For several months, the Liverpool Police Department struggled to electronically file reports and access records. Village officials had their e-mail interrupted, the Village Justice’s office had difficulty securing information on traffic tickets and residents were unable to call up agendas and other information from the village Web site.
“It started back in March 2011 when we detected a bad sector on the hard drive,” Callahan said. “We had difficulty restoring files and then we lost our ability to update the website.”
The clerk’s office lost the ability to upload information directly to the website. “We had to coordinate all that through our server,” Callahan said. The process depended on the server’s availability, so it often took extra time to post anything.
In light of its website woes, the village established a Facebook page this summer. “We set up the Facebook page partly out of frustration,” Callahan said.
To shore up its computer functions, the village board voted Sept. 19 to spend up to $20,000 to replace its present server, iSafe Technologies, “to prevent further loss of police information, court information and possibly financial information,” according to the motion made by Trustee Dennis Hebert and seconded by Trustee Jim Rosier.
Mayor Gary White instructed Police Chief Bill Becker to canvass computer-support vendors and to pursue possible grants. “Don’t wait,” White told the chief.
“We had received several complaints from residents who couldn’t access meeting agendas and what not,” White said. When the mayor learned the village had to have a third party handle uploads, “I said, ‘That’s enough. We have to do something.’”
The village’s Web host has long been iSafe Technologies of Syracuse, but Liverpool is now being served by The Garam Group which provides services to municipalities such as Manlius and agencies such as the Capital District Transportation Authority.
“The new server gives us three hard drives,” Callahan said, “as well as off-site disc backup.”
In this day and age, citizens naturally expect their governments to be up to speed online, said Village Clerk Mary Ellen Sims. “People depend on websites now,” Sims said. “They’re really the main source of information.”
Money to pay for the computer upgrades will come from the village’s general fund.
