(Greensburg, IN) – Greensburg City Council approved a funding request from IT Director Josh Tressler Wednesday night for an emergency equipment purchase.
Tressler provided background to council, saying core equipment, internet connectivity, security software, and interoffice communication fall under Decatur County’s technology budget, but they use the city and the county as kind of a redundancy system.
“So we use a city building and a county building to house all of our equipment and all of the connections,” Tressler said. “Back in 2021, we put in our first new equipment, security firewalls, switches and lots of other things.
“We’ve been working on a five or six year rotation with these devices based on security updates and tech ongoing support,” he added. “Just a few years ago, we actually replaced some of the equipment prior to extending contracts on it, because it was cheaper to replace it, than to pay the extended maintenance contract.”
Fast forwarding to this year, Tressler says he says he and his team were working on pricing for all of the equipment to be replaced next year, and they started running into trouble.
“All of the technology and equipment and things we’re trying to purchase, we’re getting like, 14 days and now to seven-day valid quotes,” he said. “And there’s already been 20, 30, 40 percent increases on this equipment every time we go back.”
Tressler says he went to Decatur County Council recently and was given conditional approval to make the purchase, because a price increase popped up two days before the meeting and he wasn’t able to get on the agenda – as required – to request an additional appropriation.
“The way our MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) is set up is any additional purchases or anything outside of our budget, I’m to go to both councils and request that additional funding,” Tressler said. “I am here to apologize. I was not able to get to this council to speak on this, due to the issue that we had. It’s basically an emergency replacement.”
City Council approved Tressler’s request for $22, 451, which is the city’s half of the tab.
The money will come out of funds already budgeted.
Tressler oversees IT for both Decatur County and the City of Greensburg.
City Council moved its meeting this month to Wednesday to avoid conflicts with the Decatur County 4-H Fair.
Council regularly meets the second Tuesday of each month.
