Y2K Special Announcement
On Friday, July 16, 1999, Dale Eliz. Corey, Titusville's Information Systems Manager and Y2K Chairperson declared the city to be 100% Y2K compliant. This declaration came two weeks ahead of the anticipated date of project conclusion that was to be July 31, 1999. The city's Y2K compliance project has been ongoing since September of 1998 when Corey was named Chairperson for the project. The project consisted of two phases - Detection ( September 1998 to March 1999) and Correction (April 1999 to July 1999).
During the detection phase, critical systems were determined and assessed, and contingency plans were developed. Contingency plans were developed for one hundred and thirteen systems that were determined to be circuit dependent (i.e. lighting, elevators, radio systems, alarms, street lighting, computer systems, phone systems, office equipment, financial systems, etc.). Once the systems were assessed, they were either deemed as non-critical, could be manually overridden, or needed replacement.
During the correction phase of the project, systems were replaced that did not comply. Additional contingency plans were developed for systems that did not comply but could not be reasonably replaced. Emergency Management personnel, headed up by Y2K lead, Fred Jodts, EMS Manager, began planning and organizing for any circumstances that may occur on or shortly after January 1, 2000. The city, as well as county, has already prepared to man Emergency Operations Centers on January 1, 2000 in case of critical system failures/breakdowns.
As requested by the city's Purchasing and Contracting Administrator, Rey Palma, numerous vendors and service providers for the City have provided letters of disclosure for Y2K compliance. Mr. Palma has also included Y2K compliance clauses for all new city purchases since 1998. Also, the city has sent numerous letters of disclosure as requested.
Brian Hunter, the city's Water Production Supervisor, formulated a formal statement concerning water distribution for customers that is contained in the city's Year 2000 Final Compliance Plan. Based on his assessment of the city's water systems, Mr. Hunter states "I am confident that no impact will occur to our treatment systems, and the continued supply of safe, potable water is assured." You may obtain a copy of the city's compliance plan by calling the Computer Services Help Desk at 383-5701.
The city has been very fortunate in the amount of progress they have been able to achieve towards the Y2K compliance plan. For the last three years, guided by the Mayor, City Council, and City Manager, the city has been upgrading or dismantling obsolete computer systems. In November of 1998, the city actually turned off its old Unisys mainframe, and converted its financial applications to a new open system architecture running on a Windows NT based platform. The Building and Planning departments have been implementing a new building and permitting system that is Windows NT based. Public Safety (Police and Fire/Emergency Services) has also invested in a new NT based application for criminal records, incident reporting, etc. All together, the city has invested approximately $750,000 improving its systems and preparing for the Year 2000.
As stated by Mrs. Corey, "It would be unrealistic to anticipate that there will be no system failures on January 1, 2000 but citizens need to understand that all systems will not be failing at once on January 1, 2000 as the doomsayers would have you believe. Tremendous amounts of money, time, and effort have been expended by the Federal, State, and Local governments and also in private industry to ensure that they do not. We have become too technology dependent it seems. Doesn't anyone remember when cell phones, pagers, voice mail, and VCR's didn't exist? We survived then without them and we'll survive now. There are workarounds for just about anything (especially those that are driven by profit). As for the financial institutions, we feel that they will not suffer serious failures because they are profit driven, and if they don't make a profit then they lose." If you are still seriously concerned about Y2K, Mrs. Corey recommends that you purchase any one of the inexpensive Y2K action guides that can be purchased at any bookstore. Titusville will be promoting more Public Awareness forums throughout the remainder of the year to keep citizens up to date. As affirmed by Mrs. Corey, "The impact of what we have learned through preparations for Y2K will be ongoing well after the turn of the century and will make our systems that much more efficient."
* * * [ Current Page - TOP ]
