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Franklin County approves $22,000 backhoe purchase and renews software and backup contracts
Summary
Commissioners approved purchase of a CAT 420 backhoe for $22,000 from a self-funded solid-waste account, and authorized payment for annual software maintenance and a three-year cloud backup contract; transcript contains some ambiguous numeric formatting for IT totals.
Franklin County commissioners on Jan. 7 approved several procurement items: purchase of a CAT 420 backhoe for the transfer station, approval of annual software maintenance invoices up to the amount presented, and authorization of a three-year cloud backup contract for the county’s Microsoft 365 environment.
Backhoe purchase: County staff recommended acquiring a 2025 CAT 420 backhoe from Foley Equipment, accepting a $10,000 trade-in allowance for a 2010 JCB and presenting a total cost of $22,000. Staff said the solid waste operation is self-funded and the purchase would be paid from the solid waste special operations fund, not from property tax revenue. Commissioners voted to approve the purchase unanimously.
Software and cloud backup: Staff summarized multiple annual software maintenance invoices across departments (split-funded Carpel invoice and a $3,752.92 bill-back to Wellsville and Ottawa police departments for mobile wireless VPN services). Staff noted an 11% year-over-year increase on the county's spam-filter invoice and indicated they are seeking alternative pricing. The commission approved payment of annual maintenance invoices up to the amount presented in the meeting record (transcript formatting recorded the number as 137,446.76, though punctuation in the transcript was ambiguous). The commission also approved a three-year cloud backup service agreement to protect the county’s Microsoft 365 data; the transcript records the quote amount inconsistently (appeared as '36,3205'); staff said the three-year term was the most cost-effective option.
Why it matters: The backhoe purchase addresses a critical equipment need at the transfer station after repeated breakdowns of older equipment, while the IT contracts aim to protect county data and ensure continuity as more services move to cloud platforms.
Next steps: Staff will finalize vendor paperwork and execute the backhoe purchase from the solid waste fund and proceed with the cloud backup subscription and the approved invoice payments. The county noted it will continue to seek competitive pricing for recurring software costs.
