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Marquette County committee weighs $525,000 IT refresh and door-access replacement
Summary
IT Director Dan Buchholz told the Executive & Finance Committee the county plans a two-part technology refresh (network and virtual hosts) and a needed door fob replacement; estimated costs could total about $525,000 and county staff recommended folding some work into 2028 borrowing or the 2027 budget.
Dan Buchholz, Marquette County IT director, told the Executive & Finance Committee on June 10 that the county is planning two major technology projects and faces immediate equipment failures that need attention. The projects are a network refresh and an update of virtual server hosts; Buchholz said the last network refresh was in 2020 and the next is estimated at about $436,000, while replacement virtual hosts have a current quote around $88,000.
Why it matters: County IT underpins nearly all operations, and Buchholz said recent component failures and an aging door-fob access system are creating operational risk, particularly for the Sheriff's Office. The committee must weigh borrowing, timing and vendor selection to avoid service interruptions.
Buchholz said Marquette County runs about 40 virtual servers using virtual hosts rather than physical servers and that virtual-host upgrades historically have been in the neighborhood of $80,000; the current replacement quote is roughly $88,000. He reported the county's door fob access system is about 20 years old and has experienced more frequent failures lately. A cloud-based door-fob replacement was quoted at about $83,000 last year and is now about $100,000; Buchholz warned the quote is valid only about 30 days.
Administrator Ron Barger said the county could wrap the necessary upgrades into 2028 borrowing; Buchholz and Barger cited an estimated combined total of roughly $525,000 if the network refresh, host replacements and door-access work are combined. Barger recommended including the door-fob upgrade in the 2027 budget while staff obtain a second vendor quote for comparison. The minutes note there are effectively two vendors able to integrate the fob and camera systems for the Sheriff's Office.
The committee did not take a final funding vote on June 10. Buchholz said he will seek an additional vendor comparison and present more detailed cost and timing options to the committee, and Barger signaled that borrowing and budget timing will be considered in future budget cycles.
