by Katie Wagner
kwagner@busconews.com
In an attempt to save money on printing, Whitley County Commissioners hired Advanced Imaging Solutions to service all printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines within the County government at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, March 19. The County currently utilizes around 150 machines, and based on estimates by Advanced Imaging Solutions, Whitley County could see a cost savings of $1600-$1700 per month by going with their services. Vice Chairman of Commissioners George Schrumpf said after looking at four different proposals, Advanced Imaging Solutions provides the best product for Whitley County.
“It’s going to be a huge savings for us,” he said, “and I can’t say enough about the benefit of bringing in this company.”
The company spent several months examining the usage and print needs of the County, surveying the number of copies per machine per month and found that 12 machines weren’t being used.
Advanced Imaging Solutions is a managed print service that provides ink cartridges, paper and other printing services to meet the needs of each department. The company does not sell printers, but if a printer needs replaced, the County will pay an $80 swap-out fee for the equipment.
With a managed print service, Schrumpf said the problem of buying and replacing ink cartridges will no longer be an issue. Schrumpf reported that the County has over $12,000 worth of cartridges in storage, and some have either expired or are incompatible with current devices.
Most of the County’s devices are Toshiba-based, but Advanced Imaging plans to upgrade 14 copying units, which will standardize the fleet and make inter-departmental work simpler.
In other Board news:
Commissioners voted to delegate drug testing to one provider, Parkview Health. Previously, the Whitley County Highway Department used Indiana Testing while the rest of the County used Parkview Health.
Dan Weigold, Whitley County GIS Coordinator, reported that the State of Indiana gave Whitley County a grant to provide information regarding parcel data that will be helpful for economic development. The information will be used for a web feature service and will be put on a statewide map in Bloomington. The state gave the County a $6000 grant three years ago to develop the GIS website.
Commissioner George Schrumpf mentioned that the County has been using GovPro to purchase general office supplies and has saved almost $5,800 since the first of the year. The company is approved by the State of Indiana and has contracts with stores such as Staples, Office Depot and other office supply stores and provides up to a 30% discount and free shipping at times. County employees simply present a purchase order to the County Auditor for approval.
“It provides more positive control of supplies and quite a bit of savings,” Schrumpf said.
Local businesses are eligible to participate if they are able to service the entire state.
Alan Tio, President of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) discussed the hot topic of possibly aligning the EDC and the Chamber of Commerce. Tio said both organizations play important roles in the County and in the community. By aligning the organizations, they would still have separate identities, but common programs.
The Chamber would provide ongoing outreach and communication, Tio said, and would create a pipeline for the EDC for expansion opportunities.
The Commissioners voiced concern over the alignment.
“Me, personally, I cannot see the commonality between the EDC and the Chamber,” Chairman of Commissioners Don Amber said.
“We’re doing so well now,” Schrumpf added. “Do we want to chance watering down the EDC?”
“If you do anything, let us know,” Commissioner Tom Rethlake concluded.
The next regular scheduled Board of Commissioners meeting will be Monday, April 2 at 1 p.m. in the Whitley County Government Center meeting room.
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