Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Information Technology topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Pelham IT team outlines multi-year overhaul to bring services in-house
Summary
City IT lead Chuck Crocker told the Pelham City Council that over the past three years the city replaced aging network equipment, moved servers to a colocation facility, added proactive monitoring and hired three staff to support enterprise applications, public‑safety systems and GIS.
The Pelham City Council heard a detailed report Feb. 16 from the city’s IT team on a multi‑year effort to modernize network infrastructure and bring services in‑house.
IT lead Chuck Crocker told the council the city now connects about 19 locations on a single, redesigned network with improved bandwidth and redundancies so one outage does not disable services citywide. "We have ripped and replaced your infrastructure," Crocker said, adding the work included new wired and wireless equipment and dashboards that let staff see outages in real time.
Crocker said the city moved most on‑site servers into a colocation facility to gain redundant power, cooling and internet access. "We run a rack that we've put equipment in ... and we've got redundant power," he said, explaining the change reduces the need for Pelham to operate its own data center and lowers operational risk.
The IT team also expanded staffing. Crocker said the city added three positions: an enterprise applications lead (John Mills, not present), a public‑safety technology administrator (Tim Watkins) and a GIS specialist (Allison Sepulveda). He described the hires as filling gaps so the city can support complex systems such as police‑vehicle equipment and the Civic Complex’s event technology.
Mayor (speaker 1) and council members thanked the team for improving reliability and bringing services under direct city control. Crocker framed the work as providing the city with ownership and responsiveness: "When you're paid to do something versus owning it, it makes a huge difference," he said.
The presentation concluded with council members praising the improvements and the manager noting the city will continue incremental upgrades where gaps remain.
The council did not take formal action on the presentation; it was informational and intended to keep elected officials and the public informed about ongoing IT investments.
