At an earlier Great Bend City Council meeting, Interim City Administrator George Kolb presented the council the need to improve their IT services throughout the city. Kolb wanted to see better protection of the city’s assets, records, and sensitive data. The city could choose to do nothing, create their own IT department, or outsource the service to an IT partner. Choosing to outsource the service was deemed the best option.
The selection committee narrowed down the five proposals to two finalists including Gilmore Solutions, based out of Sterling, and Central Plains Computer Services (CPCS) from Great Bend.
City Clerk Shawna Schafer mentioned the initial cost of the IT partner would be costly, but eliminating each department’s separate methods of IT security would help soften the blow.
Shawna Schafer Audio
The selection committee consisted of Kolb, Schafer, Community Coordinator Christina Hayes, and Scott Harper from the Great Bend Police Department. The committee recommended Gilmore Solutions with the one-time fixed cost of $49,000, and a monthly rate of $8,000. Central Plains Computer Services placed a one-time fixed cost of $25,245, and a monthly bid of $7,598.18. Kolb noted Gilmore has experience working with city governments and municipalities. CPCS has over 30 years as a full-service IT company, but they do not have experience with municipalities.
Council member Jolene Biggs reiterated other board members’ feelings in that there were many unknown costs involved because the city did not know exactly what they needed from the service. For example, CPCS had a potential one-time cost at a later date to set the city up on a virtual private cloud server for $28,000.
Jolene Biggs Audio
On a night where retail business owners earlier in the meeting praised Hayes and the efforts of the Great Bend Retailers Roundtables to bring more awareness to shop local, multiple retailers urged the council to keep the business local with either CPCS or Office Products, Inc. (OPI).
Business owner Dana Dawson added the contract for a local business could make a big impact.
The council chose to table the discussion until the March 19th meeting, giving the city a chance to communicate with IT specialists in the area to determine the city’s exact needs. The month will also give the bidding companies a chance to clearly itemize prices for precise services, making it easier for the council to compare the proposals.
In other city council news:
– A motion was approved to rename McAurther Lake to Rotary Lake after Rotary Club members presented their plans to improve the lake and make it more accessible for fishing.
– Community Coordinator Christina Hayes notified the council that the city is still $6,000 short of their fundraising to have a fireworks display on the 4th of July.
– While placing bids to have the carpet replaced at the Great Bend Events Center, it was discovered that there was asbestos in the floor tiles. Hayes said she would bring bid prices back to the council for the possible removal of the asbestos.
– The council approved the $1,000 sponsorship for the 2018 Job Fest held on April 19 at the Great Bend Events Center from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.