State Grant to Fund Computer Deal in Niagara County, N.Y.

(TNS) -- The City of Lockport was approved earlier this week for a $470,000 state grant that Mayor Anne E. McCaffrey said would pay for new computer hardware and software, including more efficient payroll and water and sewer billing systems.

Finance Director Scott A. Schrader said there also will be connections to the Niagara County Information Technology Department two blocks from City Hall. The county would host the city's computer servers, and the city would pay half the cost of one county IT employee each year. The city has never had an IT department of its own.

McCaffrey said the grant from the Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments would solve a problem of cumbersome, outdated systems in the city government.

"Too much paper, not enough computerization," she said.

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