Lakehurst Calls Manchester For Tech Support

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  MANCHESTER – Lakehurst Borough and Manchester Township continue to seek ways to share services or enter into interlocal agreements and save taxpayers money.

  The two municipalities have reached one such agreement. They’ve entered into a one-year contract in which Lakehurst will pay Manchester for information technology services, a cost savings for the borough.

  Lakehurst had been using Coastal Solutions for its IT services. According to vendor reports provided by the borough, it spent $19,858.22 for those services in 2018 and $25,273.67 in 2017.

  “The Borough needs IT services for networking problems, desktop support, maintaining our anti-virus software, overseeing nightly back-up, assisting with the purchase of computer supplies and equipment, and telephone system support and repairs,” Lakehurst Borough Clerk Maryanne Capasso told The Manchester Times.

  The borough will spend $13,500 for the one-year contract with Manchester.

  “They came to us and asked us if we’d assist,” Manchester Township Business Administrator Donna Markulic said. “We’ll be allowing two of our employees that currently work here no more than 10 to 15 hours a month to go over there and perform services.”

  Manchester’s IT services are in-house, with three employees. They will likely receive a small stipend for doing the extra work in Lakehurst, Markulic said.

  The township continues to explore shared services agreements with other municipalities. Markulic said because Manchester is often the larger township in these agreements, they often take on the larger share of responsibilities, but any amount of money coming into the town is a benefit to taxpayers.

  Manchester Township also performs building inspections for Lakehurst. Markulic said Manchester received $34,322 for 2018, which is average. The interlocal agreement was signed in February 2015 and inspections started that June. That agreement runs through December 2019.