City to spend $56,000 for new computer server

The Decorah City Council voted 5-2 Monday night to spend $56,000 to buy a new VMware server to store the city's computer data.

The vote came after last Monday's vote by the Winneshiek County Board to not allow the city to share the county's server.  Supervisors said they were not comfortable with having another organization have access to sensitive data from the county.

Council members Dan Bellrichard and Chuck Lore were the two "no" votes.  Lore said he was disappointed the city is now going to have to pay more money for the equipment.  He said that wouldn't be the case "if we'd still be working with the county."

Bellrichard said when the city council was discussing whether to hire the city's own IT Director, city council members were told there would be "no additional expenses" because of the move.  Bellrichard asked "How many thousands of dollars more are we going to be paying because of our decision not to share an IT Director (with the county)?"

Winneshiek County is still asking for $34,267 to cover what it claims are the city's shares of previous computer purchases made when the city and county were sharing an IT Director..