RESOLUTION APPROVING A 36 MONTH CONTRACT WITH CENTURYLINK FOR A REDUNDANT TELEPHONE CIRCUIT

Background: Sauk County’s enterprise phone system provides phone services to roughly 850 extensions.  Currently, the telecommunications link to the outside world for all Baraboo extensions is through an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) circuit that terminates in the Historic Court House (HCH).  This includes all extensions for the Sheriff’s Department, including outgoing calls from the 911 dispatch center.  Should something disrupt this single connection, roughly 500 extensions would lose the ability to connect with locations outside of Sauk County’s facilities.

The installation of a redundant ISDN circuit at the Law Enforcement Center (LEC), would mitigate the risks associated with having a single connection to our telecommunications service provider.  The installation cost for such a circuit would be negligible and is estimated to be $250.  Our current phone system can support this second connection and the only significant cost to Sauk County would be the ongoing monthly service fees of approximately $500 per month.

Funding for these services in the current fiscal year are estimated to be $1,500, as installation will likely not occur until late September or early October, and would be expended from the MIS budget.  Ongoing funding would be appropriated in subsequent MIS budgets.