At Monday’s meeting of the Brown County Commissioners Court, approval was given to the purchase of twenty new computers.

The Commissioners have known for a while that the County’s computers and systems were becoming old and out of date.  At a previous meeting it was decided to hire Goldsmith Solutions to assess the state of the County’s computer systems and to make recommendations for upgrades.  Goldsmith Solutions has offices in Austin, Dallas, and Abilene, and specializes in consulting to County governments.  They spent four months (August through November of this year) meeting with elected officials, department heads, and staff of Brown County.

Goldsmith found that the County needs to be brought up to date in computers, systems, and information security.  They recommended an upgrade package that includes 15 “all-in-one” desktop computers, 10 monitors, 5 laptop computers, 5 laptop docking stations, 5 wireless keyboard mouse additions, and 20 battery backups, for a total cost of $36,542.  The Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the purchase.

The new equipment will be purchased from Dell Computers at prices already negotiated by the Texas Department of Information Resources.  Goldsmith said they might be able to find battery backups at a lower price than the quote from Dell, and thus lower the final cost.  The new computers are expected to ship in about two weeks.

In other business:

*** The Commissioners took no action on the burn ban, which remains OFF for the time being.

*** The Commissioners took no action to regulate fireworks for the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, thus allowing fireworks to be used for Christmas and New Year’s Day.

*** The Commissioners approved an Interlocal Agreement with the Brownwood Independent School District for some road work near the Future Farmers of America barn.