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Houghton County to press VC3 for answers as commissioners weigh in‑house IT option amid phone‑system breakdown
Summary
Commissioners scheduled a special meeting with VC3 to address IT support concerns, questioned a four‑year contract, reviewed IT budget figures, and agreed to meet with local phone vendors after a contract cancellation left the county without phones.
Houghton County commissioners on Monday asked staff to set a special meeting with VC3 and to examine whether an on‑site or county‑employed IT position should supplement the contractor after a series of unresolved technology and phone issues.
Chairman Tom Tikkanen said the special meeting should allow staff to raise concerns directly with VC3. Commissioner Glenn Anderson questioned the four‑year contract length and recommended evaluating performance after one year. Commissioners discussed a potential model in which the county hires an on‑site IT employee to work with VC3, or deploys VC3 staff on specific days; Commissioner Anderson asked what a one‑year on‑site cost would look like.
Teresa Hill, human resources, said she had a scheduled meeting with VC3 on June 3 and expected to review all support tickets generated by staff. Tikkanen also proposed forming a task force to oversee integration and asked Hill to report back after her meeting.
Board members reviewed IT budget figures on the record: the county had budgeted $300,000 for IT; an IT wage was listed at about $100,000, Karhu was shown at $100,816, cloud storage at $200,000, and VC3 costs were cited at approximately $100,000. Commissioners requested cost comparisons between continuing with VC3 and hiring in‑house staff.
Separately, the board discussed continuing breakdowns in the county telephone system. Chairman Tikkanen said the contract with Baraga Telephone had been cancelled without standard procedures, previous phones could not be located, and earlier IT support had not been responsive. Teresa Hill said she had not received a callback from Baraga Telephone to discuss replacement phones. Commissioners Gretchen Janssen and Glenn Anderson agreed to set up meetings with Baraga Telephone and local vendor Up and Running. Local vendor representative Matt Thyor said he has attempted to contact the county repeatedly, that his company manages more than 50 systems, and that he felt overlooked when the county did not schedule a previously requested meeting.
The Board directed staff to schedule the special VC3 meeting, to report back on the June 3 VC3 conversation, and to arrange vendor meetings to resolve the telephone system outage. No contract changes were approved at the meeting.
