County looks to upgrade, unify email service

From the maligned "spiderweb" of wiring that runs through the walls of the Putnam County Courthouse to the oft-derided, rarely updated county website, Putnam County government has a reputation for being less than tech-friendly over the years.

That catch-as-catch-can pursuit of technology also extends to email, with county emails not originating from a central server or domain name, but a collection of sources including AirHOP, Yahoo, Gmail, CCRTC and Hotmail.

A pair of local contractors who do much of the technology work for the county have proposed that the county needs to find a solution to this problem, with a specific, county-centric name that makes it clear the email is addressed to a government official.

"The county should have legitimate email," Brent Cash of 12 Point Technology told the county commissioners on Monday.

John Hendrich of HOP Telecom agrees.

"I personally believe the county should have one email that they all use," he said.

A look through the county website reveals that several departments have more professional, department-specific addresses such as putnamhealthindiana.org, putnamcounty911.org, putnamcountyprosecutor.com, putnam-sheriff.org and pchwydept.com.

However, the idea is to take this one step further with one central email system for the entire county.

The exact name this would take on remains up in the air. Normally, a business, organization or government entity uses its website domain name in the email address -- in this case it would be @co.putnam.in.us.

However, no consensus seems to exist on how Indiana counties should structure their domain names. Some nearby counties, such as Hendricks, use the same form as Putnam. Neighboring Montgomery, Morgan and Owen use (county name)county.in.gov, while Clay and Parke counties use slight variations on the .gov arrangement.

A separate but related matter for the commissioners is the current state of co.putnam.in.us, with residents and county employees expressing dissatisfaction with the current state of the site.

As such, one hurdle to clear is for the commissioners to figure out the future of the county website.

Another is to determine how many addresses will be needed for a centralized county email and, therefore, how much it will cost for someone like Hendrich to set it up.

With answers to these questions, the commissioners hope to make an informed decision at an upcoming meeting.

In other technology news:

* Hendrich gave an update on the first phase of upgrading courthouse wiring to improved internet efficiency.

He said a special equipment cabinet had to be ordered for the tight squeeze that is the courthouse attic, but that it is now installed and the project is moving forward. Hendrich estimated that attic wiring will be finished next week and said that fiber optics have been run from the attic to the basement.

The all-important step in the process is the installation of master switches for individual departments. These have not yet been installed, but are ready to go when the time comes.

* County Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts announced an upgrade to the county highway portion of GIS software.

With the Event Manager software, highway and dispatch officials will be able to make live updates of traffic conditions caused by wrecks, construction and natural events such as flooding.

"It'll be a live feed where the public can go on and see it," Ricketts said.

While the commissioners were impressed with this capability, Commissioner Rick Woodall questioned how reliable the human element of the system would be.

"Are we confident we'll update it on a daily basis?" Woodall asked.

Ricketts answered with an unequivocal "Yes."

The upgrade will come at a cost of $8,150 in the first year with yearly fees of $1,791 thereafter.