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PSAP board reviews IT resiliency: spare workstation, upgrades and a geo-diverse fiber route
Summary
Bayfield County IT director described needs for after-hours support, a central knowledge base, larger hard drives for ECC computers (about $1,000 each), one spare workstation, and a geo-diverse fiber route in Washburn with an annual subscription cost of roughly $1,200–$2,000 that the PSAP grant does not cover.
Bayfield County IT Director Paul Houck briefed the Ashland–Bayfield PSAP Board June 18 on multiple IT resiliency items, including on-call support, a knowledge base, hardware upgrades and a geo-diverse fiber plan.
Houck recommended limiting on-call IT obligations to Emergency Communications Center staff rather than extending responsibility to jail or deputy services, saying after-hours response currently occurs at-will by county IT staff. He also proposed a centralized knowledge base and time-tracking tool for ECC administrative tasks to document issues and solutions and to support grant reimbursement for labor.
The board discussed hardware needs: ECC computers purchased in 2024 require larger hard drives at an estimated $1,000 per machine; two workstations need weekly maintenance. Houck proposed a single spare ECC workstation that could be kept offline and maintained until needed; Quaderer asked whether the mobile unit could serve as a spare, and was told the mobile unit is phone-only.
Houck described work with Norvado to create a geo-diverse fiber route in Washburn to reduce outage risk, but noted Bayfield County does not subscribe to an automated WISCOM failover service. He said the proposed subscription would cost approximately $1,200–$2,000 per year and is not allowable under the PSAP grant because it would be treated as a utility payment. The minutes note Ashland County still has a single fiber run and therefore a residual single-point vulnerability.
Board members agreed to have Grady and Abeles-Allison meet separately on on-call IT issues and report back at a future meeting. The PSAP later voted to enter closed session and adjourned.
