Athens Review, Athens, Texas

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July 19, 2011

More than $600,000 saved

Vote provides that over next decade, county could save significantly for Internet, phone service

Rich Flowers The Athens Review

Athens — Changes expected to save Henderson County more than $600,000 on phone and Internet service over the next decade won Commissioners Court approval Tuesday.

County Information Technology Director Betty Spencer explained that the new agreement with SuddenLink Communications will hook up the Annex in the old Prosperity Bank Building, and double the Internet bandwidth. The 5-year agreement will cost $4,700 for an additional $1,700 per month. The new agreement will cover the next five years

  The extra cost to SuddenLink will be more than offset by the savings the county will see in contracting for a new telecommunications system through Cisco, Spencer said.

The old phone hookups will be replaced by a VoIP system. That simply means that the call will travel over the Internet, rather than through telephone cables.

For three years, the county will be paying about $5,200 for the equipment to run the VoIP system. After that, the count will start to see some big savings. If the system lasts for 10 years, the county will have saved an estimated $632,000. The current system has been in place for about 13 years, Precinct 2 Commissioner Wade McKinney said.

Spencer said that without any of the changes and improvements, it would have cost the county about $63,000, just to connect the new Annex with the existing system.

In other action, Commissioners voted to continue the burn ban for another two weeks. Fire Marshal Darrell Furrh said the county is now averaging 663 on the 0-800 scale Keetch-Byrum drought index.

The most severe drought on the index is in the 700-800 range. Furrh said the eastern part of the county has readings as high as 726. The low of 551 is in the Cross Roads area.

So far, the dryness has not resulted in any major wildfires in the county.

“We’ve been lucky,” Furrh said.

Commissioners also voted to authorize submission of the Fiscal Year 2011 Justice Assistance Grant.  Funds available to the county this year total $19,177. Commissioners had requests from the District Attorney’s Office for two “ruggedized” computers that can be used in the field, a video camera for Precinct 3 Constable David Grubb’s vehicle, and digital fingerprinting equipment to be used by the misdemeanor courts.

The final item handled by the court was to authorize payment of bills in the amount of $282,361.70.

 

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