County discusses upgrading internet to fiber optic, purchasing phone systems, switching elevator contract

The Ozark County Commissioners are currently reviewing and discussing potential changes in the courthouse’s communication system, internet service and elevator contract. 

Possible phone system and internet upgrades

At their Feb. 1 weekly meeting, the commissioners said they are considering upgrading the courthouse’s internet service and phone system. 

At the meeting, Ozark County Clerk Brian Wise said the county paid around $39,000 for internet service through Centurylink in 2020, and the slow and sometimes nonexistent service left many employees frustrated. 

The commission is currently in discussion with Sho-Me Technologies of Marshfield about the cost of upgrading the internet service inside the courthouse to a fiber-optic dedicated system. 

Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner said the fiber-optic cable has already been run to the courthouse by the 44th Judicial Circuit Court system as a way for court hearings and proceedings to be held through electronic and online means during the covid pandemic. The commissioners are considering outfitting the rest of the courthouse offices with the equipment to access the internet that way instead of through its current DSL through Centurylink. 

“We get 10 [Mb/s] sometimes on the regular DSL now for downloads, and less than 1 [Mb/S] for uploads,” Turner said. 

“I checked with Sho-Me about the fiber [optic internet] and how much it was going to cost for the courthouse to be able to receive that fiber internet,” Wise said. “There are several different layers we could do. Grennan said we could probably get away with 50 [Mb/s], but it’s the whole courthouse. If we sign a 60-month agreement with Sho-Me, it took it down to like $700 a month for 100 [Mb/s] internet for the whole courthouse, which automatically saves us money compared to what we’re paying for DSL per office now – and for a much better product.”

The commissioners are also talking about having Grennan Communications of West Plains outfit the courthouse with a linked phone system. Currently, the courthouse offices each have their own line, but the lines are not connected into a single, consolidated system. 

“If we get new phones, and someone calls and they say, ‘I wanted the treasurer,’ you just hit a button and send [the call] over to the treasurer’s office. And we might have a voice prompt… So, you know, it’d say something like, ‘For treasurer’s office, dial 1. For assessor, dial 2.’ We may use that, and we may not. Some offices want it, and some don’t.”

Turner said the commissioners have been talking with Grennan Communications, and they’ve received a lot of good reports from other area businesses who have used the company. 

“This company has worked in courthouses all over southern Missouri… and they’re local guys, so if you have any problems, they can be here in 45 minutes. They could even be here potentially sooner if they have someone in the area. So we’re studying on that, and we’ll get them to send over a proposal. The initial start-up cost will be kind of high, but after that, we’ll save probably $10,000 a year easily, or more.”

The commissioners said they would have to review the rules to see if they need to send out a bid proposal for the work before deciding on a dedicated company to perform the work. They tabled the discussion until they can gather more information. 

Elevator service contract

Turner also said the commissioners had received a proposed contract from Thyseenkrupp, a national elevator company with a Springfield location, to service the courthouse’s elevator throughout the upcoming year. 

The courthouse elevator is imperative as it is the only way residents and visitors with limited mobility can access all three levels of the courthouse without using stairs.

“I’ll pull what I have from Thyseenkrupp, and we’ll look and see what our people we have now are offering,” Turner said.

The potential change of service contract was prompted by a less-than-stellar experience last year with another Springfield-based company, Kone Elevators and Escalators, when the elevator’s fan quit working.

“What did they charge us? It was almost $1,700, to come down here and change a fan in the elevator,” Turner said. “We have a service contract with them, but they said the elevator fan is not part of the elevator. Well, we didn’t realize that. We assumed that if there’s something wrong with the elevator, they’d come down to fix it. Apparently not.”

The county paid roughly $840 per quarter for the service contract, and the commissioners said the $1,600 bill on top of that left them unhappy with the terms of that agreement.