County ups Internet deal

Although fiber-optic data lines may be coming to Jay County in the near future, the Jay County Commissioners decided to lock in to a 3-year deal on Internet service for the courthouse.
The commissioners approved a three-year contract with CenturyLink to upgrade the courthouse’s bandwidth to a 10-megabit-per-second connection for $99 per month.
The courthouse’s current 5-megabit connection has been slowed down by increased network usage among all county offices. The county is paying $79.95 per month for that bandwidth level.
Although the commissioners said in November that they didn’t want to enter into a long-term contract with CenturyLink due to the possibility of fiber-optic line becoming available, they changed their minds after chatting with the county’s information technology consultant Randy Cleaver.
Cleaver said the county would likely face higher costs for fiber-optic than the $99 per month offered by CenturyLink and that the county would also face one time costs such a re-wiring to convert.
Commissioner Faron Parr said the 10-megabit connection should be sufficient for the next three years and that the price is excellent.
In other business Monday, the commissioners:
•Signed a contract to install new backup protocols for courthouse computers.
The new system will have a physical disc backup in the courthouse but will also back up to two servers located in Colorado.
Cost to install the new system will be $2,500 for equipment, $1,350 for a three-year instant replacement warranty, and $3,000 per year for the off-site backup service.
•Opened annual stone and bridge material bids from four companies — Erving Materials, Meshberger Bros., Stoneco and Primco.
The commissioners forwarded the bids to highway superintendent Ken Wellman for review.[[In-content Ad]]