By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – At its July 17 meeting, the Wabash County Board of Commissioners voted to take under advisement a contract for managed printer services to three additional county departments.
Representatives from Perry ProTech presented a proposal at the commissioners’ April 10 meeting for a five-year lease on 56 printers, covering all parts and labor. The terms of the proposal were a lease of $667.69 per month, and printing costs of 1 cent per black and white page and 8 cents per color page.
Two of the company’s representatives attended the July 17 meeting, announcing that three additional departments – County Clerk, County Recorder and Veterans’ Services – joined several other county departments on the contract with Perry ProTech.
“Based on our readings, as well as actual bills from the customers we have on Managed Print, replacing the printers and lowering the total cost of operation are going to save about $150-151 a month, about $1,800 a year, and about $9,000 over the term of a 60-month lease,” Scott Shoda, of Perry ProTech, said.
“As we talked about before, standardizing the fleet of printers will make it easier on IT, as well as departments [being able to share] toner.”
Shoda said that the company would offer a $50 credit on unused toner cartridges that the departments have in their inventory, up to $600, and that the contract will provide 20 pieces of equipment for the three departments.
Wabash County Clerk Elaine Martin said that her department will initially get six new printers through the contract.
“I’m all for it. In the long run, it will save us money. We’ll initially be replacing six of our printers with brand new ones. The oldest one in my office that we’ll be replacing is from 2005… it’s still going, but it may not be able to be fixed much longer,” Martin said.
County Auditor Marcie Shepherd raised a concern regarding when the contract would go into effect, saying that departments that did not budget for Perry ProTech’s services in 2017 could not begin until their 2018 fiscal year, if they budgeted for it.
Martin asked whether they would have time for revisions before the upcoming budget deadline, which Shepherd said they would.
Another concern was raised regarding ownership of the printer. Chairman Scott Givens asked what the buyout price would be at the end of the contract.
“They won’t legally state it in [the contract] because they’re fair market value leases, and if they do that you lose that characteristic. I can tell you, historically, 10 percent of what you’d pay for the machine,” Shoda said.
“At the end of five years, if the new printer that’s out at that point in time doesn’t bring financial benefit for them to switch to it, then you should totally consider buying… you’re talking, $70 or so.”
The commissioners took the contract under advisement, with Givens noting that they would most likely move forward with it pending approval of departmental budgets.
Additional news from the commissioners meeting included a donation of $7,500 from the Roann Covered Bridge Association to cover the costs of weather sealing the Roann Covered Bridge, a hazardous materials plan update and the weekly jail report.
The commissioners approved the hazardous materials plan, which classifies 29 facilities in the county as containing extremely hazardous materials and 24 as containing hazardous materials. The details of the plan will be electronically sent to all county law enforcement and fire departments.
Sheriff Bob Land reported that there were 85 inmates in the Wabash County Jail, with 43 being held in Miami County, nine in Elkhart County and seven in Wells County.