Council Talks Secure Email Server For Police Dept.

Steve Haertling, owner of Haertling’s Radio Shack, Nashville Volunteer Fire Department Member and organizer of the annual Nashville Fourth of July Fireworks spoke to the council at their meeting on Thursday, April 6, asking for a donation for this year’s display.

By Alex Haglund

    There was no action taken on the biggest point of discussion at the April 6 meeting of the Nashville City Council, when the councilors discussed the need for a secure computer server for the Nashville Police Department (no action was taken because the item was too new to be added to the official agenda).

Police Chief Brian Fletcher told the council that a lot of state and federal agencies require a “.gov” or similar address from a law enforcement agency in order to do official business, and a secure email server is a requirement to get that sort of address.

Right now, the sort of official communications that Fletcher was talking about are done through and with the assistance of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department who allows the Nashville Police Department to use an email address through their server.

For other communications, officers use whatever email they have personally, usually consumer email services like those offered by google or yahoo.

“We’re looking at roughly around $5,000 to do this,” Police Committee Chairman Josh Fark told the council.

“No,” Fletcher said. “More.”

Fletcher said that their current software for their computer server was out-of-date and no longer supported. The cost for the server with the software would be $9,955. Another $4,637 would be for SonicWall Security for the system. The department would also be looking to purchase a license for Acrobat PDF software that would allow them to autofill forms, at a cost of $1,848. Finally, the .gov email addresses would cost the department $00 annually.

“If we get this,” Fletcher said, in the long term, it’s going to be cheaper than doing each part piecemeal.”

“So, we’re looking at about $16,000,” said Fark.

Fletcher said that the police department had about $10,000 in their fund, which would all go toward this purchase, plus any additional money approved by the council. The item will be on the agenda for a vote at the April 20 meeting of the City Council.

Fireworks

Steve Haertling of the Nashville Fire Protection District, the longtime organizer of Nashville’s July 4 fireworks, spoke with the city council and asked them for their annual donation towards the show.

Haertling requested $3,000, the same donation as last year, and the council approved, with the money coming out of the city’s motel tax fund.

The fireworks show should be another good one, Haertling said, adding that he hoped he and the other fire protection district personnel would be able to make use of the lot formerly occupied by the recycling center to fire off some of the shells, since it still was not being used by the business.

Force Main Project

City Utilities Superintendent Blaine Middleton told the council that he would be seeking to replace a section of eight-inch force main running approximately 2,100 feet from the terminal lift station to the city water treatment lagoons.

The pipe currently in place is cast iron and was put in during the early 1960s. City crews are experiencing frequent breaks in the pipes.

“What we’re seeing on these breaks is blow-outs on the bottom,” Middleton said, “we’ve gotten our life out of it, and it is in fields, so when it does break, we don’t know about it.”

Middleton estimated a budget for the prject at $15,000, about $13,000 of which would go toward the purchase of the new piping. Labor will be done by city crews, except when the lines go under a highway or creek.

“We’ve been spending money patching it for the last five years,” said Water and Sewer Committee Chairman Doug Hargan. “It’s time we get it replaced and hopefully, we’ll be good for the next 50 years.”

Middleton also told the council that his crews had started their annual spring flushing of the hydrants, and were working their way through town from north to south. Flushing is scheduled to be completed on April 14. Low water pressure is possible in the areas where the flushing is happening, but Middleton stated that all water should remain safe to drink.

Personnel

The council entered into closed session to discuss a personnel issue. After returning to open session, they approved a motion to “take disciplinary action with regards to a certain employee.”

The council also heard that Tina Schmidt had been hired as a new custodian at the public works office. She will be paid $11.05 per hour. Mayor Kolweier asked Street Department head Rich Schuette if Schmidt might be agreeable to coming to city hall to clean while their custodian was on vacation; Schuette stated that he believed she would be.

Other

Schuette told the council that they had received their report from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) regarding the compost site. There was a note in the report regarding the gate being left open (which the city has since changed its policy regarding), but the IEPA did not cite or fine the city over the issue.

The recycling truck collected 6.76 tons of recyclables from citizens during the month of March.

There will be a zoning board of appeals meeting held on Thursday, April 27, at the public works building. There will be no April meeting of the planning commission.

The board voted to keep the minutes of past executive sessions confidential.

The council approved renewing the city’s insurance policies for commercial property, pipeline distribution, boiler and machinery, and computer and equipment.

The board approved the reappointment of Rhett Renken to the Nashville Enterprise Zone Board.