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Council approves WinCC server upgrade and sole-source designation for Water Reclamation facility
Summary
Council approved AWC’s proposal to upgrade WinCC servers at the Water Reclamation Facility, authorized the mayor and city manager to execute the contract, and declared AWC a sole-source provider after staff explained prior vendor issues and the need for new enterprise hardware.
City Council on March 3 approved a three-part set of actions to replace control servers at the Water Reclamation Facility and to assign AWC as a sole-source provider for the work.
Dennis Baron (presenting staff) described the project as a joint effort between the water-reclamation and information-services teams. He said the city previously relied on a contractor (Archimedes) for hardware and software support but moved operations in-house; after evaluating options, staff recommended purchasing new enterprise servers and upgrading the WinCC process-control software. Baron said the proposal was submitted late because staff were finalizing a source-protection agreement with AWC that limits network access.
Baron and IT staff said the new process software requires modern server hardware; Baron noted that the city had budgeted for interim equipment in a prior fiscal action and that buying a short-term solution would have required purchasing another server later. He referenced an earlier equipment purchase and said the earlier 1-time cost was close to $139,000 but did not state a final dollar figure for the current proposal during the public discussion.
IT staff explained that the former contractor held administrative access and credentials to the legacy equipment; after Archimedes stopped providing adequate support, AWC performed a technology review and recommended replacing aging hardware. Council members asked how often the city would need to replace this equipment; staff said the new enterprise equipment was intended to be more durable and would be managed by the city’s IT group.
Council voted to (1) approve AWC’s proposal to upgrade WinCC at the Water Reclamation Facility, (2) authorize the mayor and city manager to execute the contract with AWC, and (3) declare AWC a sole-source provider for the purchase and services. Each motion passed on roll-call votes recorded as yes for all members present.
Staff said the plant continues to operate during the upgrades and that the servers’ replacement responds to recurring issues where staff are temporarily unable to see system telemetry during events. No contract dollar amount was stated aloud during the council discussion; the packet referenced supporting documents.
