Board opens technology bids

The city now has an idea of what it will cost to be in compliance with a new state requirement.

Portland Board of Works on Thursday opened bids for equipment to allow the live-streaming and recording of government meetings.

The board also OK’d the purchase of two vehicles for the police department.

A new state law passed during this year’s legislative session requires that all governmental bodies live-stream and record their meetings beginning July 1, 2025. City attorney Wes Schemenaur advised that it’s good to be considering the equipment now in order to be able to address any potential problems prior to the requirement going into effect. He noted that there have been challenges with equipment that has been installed in Jay County Courthouse for the same purpose.

“There’s just a lot of kinks, as you might imagine with any electronic and computer system,” he said. “So we decided we better not have July of 2025 be our first meeting that we try to make this work … It would probably be better, probably next year, to get it installed, work out all the bugs, give us at least a year to play with it and make sure it works.”

Portland City Council heard two proposals for the installation of such equipment in council chambers at Portland Fire Department in July, but took no action as there were several questions regarding warranties, technical support and timelines for installation.

Instead, council decided to take a step back, revamp specs and seek a second round of bids. The updated bid specifications call for 10 desk-mounted microphones, a podium microphone, a desk microphone and ceiling-mounted microphones, seven speakers, three video feeds, a storage platform and the ability to live-stream.

Dynamic Business Solutions of Portland was the low bidder Friday at $26,000 plus $2,000 for monitoring, $700 for storage and $150 quarterly for support. BIS Digital, a Florida company owned by a Portland native, was next at $66,126.23, and Sharp came in at $66,493.

Board of works members Steve McIntosh, Jerry Leonhard and Mayor John Boggs tabled the bids for review. 

They will also be presented to Portland City Council.

The board also approved the purchase of two 2015 Ford Explorers for the police department at a total cost of $36,990 from Chicago Motors. (City council on Monday approved utilizing some of the more than $72,500 that has been collected so far via tickets for trucks being off the approved route while U.S. 27 and Indiana 26 have been closed for construction this year.)

Police Chief Steve Schlechty noted that two of the department’s Dodge Durangos are currently out for service with another to follow.

He also told the board there will be an additional $13,000 in fees to equip the newly purchased vehicles for police use.

In other business, the board:

•OK’d a final payment of $4,350 to Milestone Contractors for Community Crossings paving work completed this year. Work included paving all of Arch and Pierce streets as well as Walnut Street east of Meridian Street, Noble Street between Main and High streets, and Union Street between Meridian and Bridge streets.

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For additional news from the Board of Works meeting, see Tuesday’s edition of The Commercial Review.