LAKEHURST – The borough hall’s phone line service will have to be updated, officials said.
Councilman Brian DiMeo reported that Lakehurst will soon be leaving behind its analog phone line. “We are in the process of working on a new phone system. It is out of necessity. We received notice from AT&T about a month ago that as of November 1 all the analog phone lines that the borough currently uses will need to be shifted to either another provider or they will be disconnected.
“This is technology that is just going away. It doesn’t exist anymore and it is getting harder to find companies that will release them and because of that the costs are going up significantly. In comparison with the new technology all our IT goes out over the internet so that is one of the solutions we are looking at,” Councilman DiMeo added.
He said the borough is looking to offset costs and that a few providers are being looked at for a solution to the issue. “One of which is our provider for the police department which we’ve been told needs to also be upgraded this year.”
Councilman Gary Lowe asked about a prior agreement with Manchester Township involving phone lines. “There was supposed to be a big savings?”
“No, it went the other way,” Council President Stephen Oglesby replied. “We are no longer using Manchester for our IT. We are using Coastal Solutions and the police are very happy that we switched to them and that will be officially in place as of the first of June.”
“It should be a positive effect not a negative one for us,” Oglesby added. “It should save the borough quite a bit of money over the long run.”
DiMeo said the savings “will be significant in comparison to what we were paying and what we will be paying,” in reference to the switch in service for the borough police department. “We are currently discussing with two companies but we were looking at a third but they chose not to get back to us so we are discussing with these two right now.”
Oglesby said that a meeting of all the borough’s department leaders was held to let them know “what is coming down so that they have input when it comes down to applying for the internet because there will be differences. They are up to speed as everybody at this point.”
In other news, DiMeo reported that a youth and recreation committee meeting was recently held and “we discussed a few things to hold live things again. We’ll be meeting on the second Monday of every month and our next meeting will be June 14 at 7 p.m. here at the Community Center. All are welcome and hopefully we’ll be restarting things up again.”
“We want to get some input on ideas of things to do. Two of the things that were discussed were a cruise night event down at the lake toward the end of August and a movie night or something down at the lake in July. We want to get more people involved,” DiMeo added.
Lowe updated the council and the public on the status of the borough’s troubled aged backhoe during the meeting. Quotes on the replacement cost of the backhoe’s engine are expected soon.
