IT director seeks hard‑drive shredder and scanner/plotter in capital request

Dan Proto, the town IT director, asked the Capital Committee on Oct. 29 to fund two capital items aimed at records security and digital workflow: an in‑house electronic media shredder and a replacement scanner/plotter used by multiple departments.

"The most secure way of doing this is destroying the actual hard drive and memory chips," Proto said, describing piles of retired hard drives, SIM cards and other media that remain recoverable after standard wipes. He said an in‑house device would preserve a chain of custody from removal to destruction and that the Department of Public Works has agreed to accept shredded metal for disposal.

Proto said the shredder quote included an optional annual service contract (roughly $1,400–$1,500) and that the machine will come with a one‑year service plan; longer maintenance would be budgeted later. On the scanner/plotter, he said the replacement unit would serve planning, building and health departments and come with an HP one‑year warranty.

Committee members asked about procurement and state‑bid rules and whether different vendors could be consolidated for service contracts; Proto said purchases would follow the state bid list but the town could select a different vendor for ongoing maintenance. The chair noted the committee’s policy of adding an escalator (a 15% contingency on estimates) to account for price increases between quote and purchase.

The request is positioned as a relatively low recurring cost to reduce the risk of a data breach and to streamline multi‑department workflows; the committee moved on to the next departmental presentation after questioning.