By Geoff Fox
Citing outdated servers for the police cameras in town, officials are looking to replace them with newer, upgraded ones through Bridge Technology out of Frederick.
Denton Powell brought forth a printout for those new servers to the September town meeting to share with town officials.
Powell said the issue with the server has been going on “for a while now, a couple years.”
The current server is about eight years old, he added.
One part in the printout would replace the aging infrastructure the town currently has in the police department, which has been made up of donated equipment Powell has been gathering over the years to keep it working.
Right now, the cameras can’t get clear photos for the officers to see anything except the front door.
That new device would allow the equipment to get operational and then help with insight with what needs to be replaced throughout the town, if the town is interested.
There is no hardware that supports the current system and it skip similar to a rabbit across the road, Powell said, because the cameras don’t have the correct resolution.
Windows also keeps updating and Powell said the system can’t keep up with those updates.
“Dead in the water needless to say,” he said.
Town Manager Mike Faith said if the town were to go forward, the town has received money through a state grant for police protection which the town has been accumulating and needs to use.
Powell did say he has an Ipro grant form that would cover the entirety of the server and equipment.
There was another grant available that would also cover the costs.
Powel also had a quote of $1,187 for a dispatch computer that would replace the current one as it needs to be upgraded to Windows 11 and Powell can’t do much more.
“I’ve tried as much as I could with different types of hardware to upgrade the memory and hard drive,” Powell said. He added he’d have to work with the county to get new software installed on the current computer.
That computer, Powell said, is about 10 years old.
“These machines are supposedly well past their lifespan,” Faith said.
Powell has been trying to get the servers to go as far as they could go and even to the point telling former Police Chief Rich Miller the servers were bad.
The server houses the information for the town’s cameras since 2013 with the server lasting about 10 years.
Powell came in soon after and put three computers together to have the current server the town is using.
“I’ve been trying to pigtail it as long, best I could,” he said.
Powell said the equipment could also be leased if the town wanted to go that route if they don’t want to pay out up front.
He also volunteered to run a grants report to see what the town could qualify for as well, which he is going to do for the October town meeting.
