Software change could save county thousands of dollars

By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – Linn County Information Technology (IT) Chris Martin told the Linn County Commissioners on Monday, Aug. 11, that gWorks, the parent company of PubWorks, the software company that Linn County uses for the Public Works Department, will be moving all of their PubWorks clients to the gWorks software.

PubWorks provided public works software before it was acquired by gWorks. gWorks provides a more comprehensive range of software including accounting, payroll, permitting, and much more, Martin told the commission.

In talking with the customer success representative from gWorks, Martin learned the Linn County would be in the first group of businesses that they would switch to gWorks.

Martin asked if there could be a setup with a citizen engagement module so that citizens can file work orders and then get an answer back. The representative said that could be added to the Linn County package.

Martin said that this would move them off of the local PubWorks which runs through the county’s server to a web browser-based product, which is what most everybody else is using. PubWorks will be doing all of the data conversion, and the company is also offering training to go along with the conversion.

Martin said this might answer a lot of the questions and desires of the commission.

Commission Chair Jim Johnson asked if the cost was going to change.

Martin said they did not talk to him about cost and he did not know if they had spoken to Public Works Director Jesse Walton about the cost.

Martin said if the county went with anybody else, even if we continue to review other products, that would be a six- to nine-month conversion process and gWorks was moving this along. Martin said he though that gWorks hoped to have this up and running before the end of the year.

Martin pointed out, “Meaning you would have to do this anyway, Even if you said, ‘Let’s go spend $60,000 on the Central Square thing’, that’s going to be a much longer term type of a setup.”

“I would suggest that we go with the gWorks and see if you like that,” he continued. “We are already in it. We’re already invested and it’s going to be if there is extra cost it’s going to be significantly cheaper because data conversion is already but into their process where everybody else is going to charge for that.”

Commissioner Alison Hamilton asked, “Will I be able to login without having my login change?”

Martin answered, “Yes.”

“Will my login change?” asked Hamilton.

“Yes, I’m sure it will. I mean it will probably be your email address and a password,” answered Martin.

“I would like to be able to login as admin, but not make a change,” said Hamilton.

“Right, once we get to the permission settings part, that’s where we will get there. But I asked them if there was a view only option and they told me yes,” said Martin.

“I’m fine with that. When will we know the cost?” Hamilton asked. “We’re at $4,000  a year now.”

Martin said he honestly did not know but he thought it was pretty low.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Approved the transfer of a 2001 Ford Excursion from the fire department to the Public Works Department to use as a commuter vehicle for the different trainings that public works staff have to attend. Public Works Director Jesse Walton said it would be used a handful of times throughout the year.

Hamilton asked if that was cost effective as compared to paying mileage to the employees. She said whenever the commissioners go to their meetings they just turn in mileage.

Walton said that public works has had an extra vehicles there for several years, but they have both been sold.

• Approved burial permits for 18 road crossing in the Prescott area from Craw-Kan Telephone Cooperative to put in fiber cable. The charge for the burial permit is $1,500. The country agreed at an earlier meeting to reduce the cost of crossings so money will be refunded from the original check that was written to the county.

• Learned from Walton that KwiKom had turned in an as-built map to the county to show where the it had buried fiber cable. Walton said that he had inspected the locations and asked KwiKom to make some corrections, which they did. The only other thing Walton asked KwiKom to provide was the depth of the fiber that was installed before the last payment was made to the company.

• Agreed for Walton to go back out for bids on propane since the previous bid had expired.

• Approved Walton posting the north and south shop foreman jobs. Johnson said that he would like to look at the job description for the jobs to see if the foreman was a working foreman.

• Accepted Denny Harding’s two week notice of resignation from the foreman position at the  South Shop. Thanked him for his years of service.

• Learned from Walton that the culverts have been installed on the 900 Road project. The road should be opened back up for local traffic by the end of the week depending on the weather.

• Learned that 1850 Road asphalt overlay is completed.

* Learned that patching was being done on 1700 Road between Gireau and Evangeline roads.

• Learned from Information Technology Director Chris Martin that the software program PubWorks was moving all of their clients to gWorks. In talking with the company, learned that Linn County would be in the first group to began the change to gWorks.

Martin said that he talked with a PubWorks customer success representative and asked if there would be set up with a citizen engagement module so that citizens can file work orders and then get an answer back. Martin said that the representative said that could be added to the Linn County package.

Martin said that this would move them off of the local PubWorks which runs through the county’s server to a web browser based product, which is what most everybody else is. PubWorks is covering all of the data conversion and all of that.

PubWorks will offer trainings to go along with the conversion.

Martin said this might answer a lot of the questions and desires of the commission.

• Approved the transfer of a 2001 Ford Excursion from the fire department to the public works department to use as a commuter vehicle for the different trainings that public works staff have to attend. Public Works Director Jesse Walton said it would be used a handful of times throughout the year.

Commissioner Alison Hamilton asked if that was cost effective as compared to paying mileage to the employees. She said whenever the commissioners go to their meetings they just turn in mileage.

Walton said that public works has had an extra vehicles there for several years but they have both been sold.

• Approved burial permits for 18 road crossing in the Prescott area from Craw Kan to put in fiber. The charge for the burial permit is $1,500. The country agreed at an earlier meeting to reduce the cost of crossings so money will be refunded from the original check that was written to the county.

• Learned from Walton that Kwikom had turned in as as-built map to the county to show where the fiber was buried. Walton said that he had inspected the locations and asked Kwikom to make some corrections which they did. The only other thing Walton asked Kwikom to provide was the depth of the fiber that was installed before the last payment was made to Kwikom.

• Agreed for Walton to go back out for bids on propane since the previous bid had expired.

• Approved Walton posting the north and south shop foreman jobs. Johnson said that he would like to look at the job description for the jobs to see if the foreman was a working foreman.

• Accepted Denny Harding’s two week notice of resignation from the foreman position at the  South Shop. Thanked him for his years of service.

• Learned from Walton that the culverts have been installed on the 900 Road Project. The road should be opened back up for local traffic by the end of the week depending on the weather.

• Learned that 1850 Road overlay is completed.

* Learned that patching was being done on 1700 Road between Gireau and Evangeline roads.