Oak Forest city officials are upgrading their computing power after the City Council approved spending about $85,000 to purchase new workstations.
Aldermen voted without opposition to use the State Purchase program to acquire 91 Dell computers at a cost of $84,726.59.
Tom Rieman, the city’s Information Technology director, said the city’s current computers are about six years old and are using outdated Windows 7 software programs.
The new computers will come loaded with Windows 10 software.
While Rieman said it would have been possible to load the new operating system onto the old computers, he felt that would lead to glitches that could cause problems and compromise government work.
Rieman also pointed out that the computer purchase had been planned for within the city budget and is a part of the city’s five-year financial plan.
In other business, Oak Forest approved a contract with Municipal Systems Consulting of Traverse City, Mich., paying $142,900 for an overhaul of the Police Department’s emergency microwave radio system.
The city also agreed to pay $10,730 to ME Simpson, of Valparaiso, Ind., for a water system distribution leak survey to be done for 2018, while also giving city Administrator Troy Ishler the authority to renew the contract through 2020. Public Works officials said that is a 1.35 percent increase over what the city had paid in recent years for similar services.
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