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Melbourne uses $9,500 in CARES funds to buy laptops, tablets for city departments
Summary
The city directed $9,500 in CARES funds to purchase laptops, tablets and webcams for City Hall, the library, fire department and public works; orders needed to be placed by Aug. 15 and do not require repayment, the clerk said.
The Melbourne City Council recorded on Aug. 9 that the city will use $9,500 in CARES program funds to buy specified laptop and tablet bundles for municipal departments, Clerk Mary Pothast said.
The devices must be ordered by Aug. 15, Pothast said, and the funds do not need to be repaid to state or federal authorities. The clerk reported ordering one laptop bundle for City Hall; a laptop bundle, a laptop and a webcam for the library; a laptop bundle and a webcam for the fire department; and a tablet for public works.
Why it matters: the purchases are intended to improve the city’s ability to mobilize government services during the COVID-19 pandemic by equipping staff with remote-capable devices. The purchases are time-limited by the state-administered CARES allocation and require placing the order before the Aug. 15 deadline.
City Hall will manage the purchases through the clerk’s office. No formal council motion or vote was recorded specifically for the purchases during the meeting, and Pothast described the ordering as an administrative step to use the available CARES allocation.
Next steps: the clerk will complete the orders before the state-imposed deadline and track delivery and deployment to the named departments.
