Chadds Ford in brief

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on October 13, 2022

Chadds Ford Township Supervisors made quick work of three items they tabled during the September work session. They voted to change the website vendor, chose to lease a new scanner plotter, and change the access control of Turner’s Mill, the municipal building.

CivicPlus will become the new provider for the township’s website. According to township Manager Matt Baumann, CivicPlus has a much better interface for both the township to upload material and for residents to find what they need on the site much more easily than they can do now. It will take three months or longer for the change to go through.

The cost is $3,450 annually for the first two years, then a 5 percent increase for year three. Chadds Ford is currently paying $2,100 per year to the current provider, but Baumann said the ease of use for township employees is worth the cost difference.

The township will soon be leasing a plotter scanner from Print-o-stat. It’s a five-year lease at $282 per month. Baumann said it would allow the township to scan in applications and plans without adding to an already overloaded storage area and allow old files to be scanned so the older paper documents can be destroyed. He added that it would also allow an employee to run off a copy of a plan for someone who requested it instead of running to and from Staples.

Supervisors also authorized Baumann to make a change regarding building security. Phoenix Access Control will change the system to a key fob system. Baumann said right now, there’s no way of knowing who has or hasn’t accessed the building, but the fob system will record who locks or unlocks doors.

“Right now, I don’t know who’s coming or going,” he said.

The cost for upgraded security is a $17,000 installation plus an annual maintenance fee of $910 per year.

Supervisor Frank Murphy said the installation fee would not be borne by Chadds Ford taxpayers. The installation will be paid for with federal funds, he said. Taxpayers will pay the annual maintenance fee, however.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.