City pays $1 million to ward off Y2K bug

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Aurora IL City pays $1 million to ward off Y2K bug

By Mike Cetera STAFF WRITER

AURORA -- The City of Lights spent more than $1 million in 1999 to ensure residents weren't left in the dark during Y2K.

Efforts to rid computers of the much-publicized millennium bug -- including equipment replacement and overtime pay -- topped $1.4 million, according to city accounting statistics.

More than a third of that was spent on a diesel-powered backup generator for the city's Route 25 water-production plant.

Although the generator was needed regardless, city officials said, it likely would not have been purchased if the Y2K bug hadn't surfaced.

The $530,000 generator, which allows the plant to treat water during long-term power outages, has been used once since it was installed late last year, Arnie Eggleston, water production superintendent, said.

It ran for a half day on Feb. 14 after a ComEd transmission pole caught fire and snapped, cutting power to nearly 15,000 area customers, Eggleston said.

The generator is routinely started "to exercise it," he added.

Additionally, the city replaced many personal computers and software programs that proved incompatible with the year change, according to Jim Dahl, the city's Management Information Systems director.

He was unsure how much the city spent on hardware replacement and upgrades.

The city spent $30,000 to upgrade its traffic signal computer, Dahl said.

Many of the purchases were needed regardless of potential Y2K problems, he said.

"That's where the line gets a little fuzzy -- things we spent on Y2K that we probably would have done eventually, anyway," Dahl said.

02/29/2000

http://www.copleynewspapers.com/beaconnews/

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 29, 2000


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