Politics & Government
Glencoe Village to Pitch Strategic IT Plan
An outside consultant will help the village keep up-to-date with technological improvements such as social media
The village of Glencoe hopes to be just as tech-savvy as its well-wired residents, connecting with Facebook and tweeting village news.
Will Jones, an assistant village manager who began work with the village in late 2010, said at Thursday's meeting of the Glencoe Board of Trustees that a consultant would be hired to write an information technology strategic plan.
A consultant will help Glencoe keep up with the latest technology such as social media and budget appropriately for new technology expenses.
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“[Hiring a technology consultant] is not something the village has done before,” Jones said. “It's not something a lot of other villages have done before.”
He said that in 2007, the village drew up a number of goals, such as webcasting of the village board meetings, creating a wireless cloud throughout the village hall and allowing for online applications and bill payments. All but the last one is now a reality, and by 2012 residents should be able to renew licenses and make service requests from the web.
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Jones also said that by summer users will be able to go to the village web site and use Google map software to find places to park in Glencoe. Business professionals will be able to find information on vacant storefronts in downtown Glencoe and Hubbard Woods Plaza.
Jones said it was unclear how much the technology plan might cost, but the staff will come back to the board before any consultant is chosen. A bid should be selected in time to make the fiscal year 2013 budget next February. Any plan would likely last the village through 2015 to 2018.
The March meeting of the Glencoe Board of Trustees was short, with no major actions taken.
The fiscal year 2011 ended with February for Glencoe, and the conservative budgeting of a year ago helped the village have a sizable budget surplus of $2.2 million — revenues were up $700,000 over forecast, while expenses were $540,000 less than budgeted.
Trustee Joel Solomon noted that sales tax revenue was 13 percent above budget, gas tax revenue came in 21 percent above budget and building permits gave the village a whopping 32 percent more money than expected.
In other news, Trustee Joseph Keefe said that the Glencoe public golf course was now open for the season.
