Date: Fri 07-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Council-technology

Full Text:

Town's Technology Purchases: Bargains Or Not?

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Pay $3,500 for a computer? Are you kidding?

That was Ed Lucas' reaction Wednesday night when he got wind of the Pension

Committee's request to purchase a new computer. The Legislative Council member

just purchased a fully loaded computer for himself for only $1,500.

"I just bought a Pentium II, 300 MHZ, built-in zip, 32X CD-Rom, 128 Megahertz,

4 megs of V-RAM, a 17-inch monitor, Windows 98 and it flies -- for $1,500," he

said.

Mr Lucas said the cost seemed to be a bit extreme, especially for the basic

programs that the Pension Committee will need.

"They're just tracking the numbers," he said.

Mr Lucas' reaction is similar to a lot of town officials over the past year or

so as they struggle to understand why the town is paying so much for

technology.

Melissa Pilchard noted that the town has been purchasing a lot of computers

and will probably be buying a lot more in the future. Isn't there some kind of

computer consortium the town can get into, she wondered.

"I would like to buy computers, but at the very best price," she said.

Mrs Pilchard said the town often "piggy-backs" the state bids when it comes to

purchasing new police cruisers, which has enabled the town to get the cars at

a more reasonable price.

The Pension Committee received its price directly from Dell Computers. The

town has been purchasing its computers from David Augusta of The Computer Guy.