More of your local tax dollars at work

Patriot · April 12, 2011, 02:09:45 AM

The new 'official', (and as yet incomplete) county government website is being hosted by Manatron, Inc. at a purported cost of $2400 per year.

The site is located at http://ks-elk.manatron.com/

Please note that this a sub-domain of Manatron's that is not an official .gov domain! Image is everything, they say.

Cursory research shows that dot gov domain names (elk_ks.gov is available) are administered exclusively by the General Services Administration of the US government and can be had for $125.00/year. Further research shows that website hosting for a domain can be had for as little as $2.99/month with a 3 year commitment. A hosting plan with the following features:

10 GB Webpage storage space (More than we would likely need in a lifetime, even with videos of the place!)
Unlimited Bandwidth
100 Email Accounts (Even the grounds keeper could have one. How many do we need?)
10 MySQL Databases (1 GB ea.)

Gee, if we had someone on the payroll or a good volunteer who could design and publish the extremely simple and straightforward Elk website, we could be spending as little as $160.88 per year instead if $2400!

The difference would buy over 358 tons of road rock! Or about 500 gallons of diesel fuel. Or enough generic Round-Up to treat johnsongrass in over 560 acres of ditches (that's about 462 miles of complete coverage of a 10' wide ditch). Or enough paint to put a 6" center line on River Rd. with a 1" brush. Or.... well, you get the point.

In this age of financial difficulty, who the heck is driving the bus? And why are we paying to take the financial scenic route?

srkruzich · April 12, 2011, 05:50:27 AM

gee Who would have thought that was the case lol. I host several sites and only charge them 20 a month or 100 a year if they pay annually. Plus 10 gigs and all the trimmings too. Lots of good stuff.

Diane Amberg · April 12, 2011, 09:01:57 AM

Did you bid for the contract?

Teresa · April 12, 2011, 10:29:48 AM

Unbelievable!!! But Kjell and I see it every day of every year...
The prices that people and company's charge for this kind of stuff is ludicrous..
The reason they do it and get by with it.. is because the common person doesn't have a clue as to what hosting and webwork etc consists of..
Thinking that becasue it is computer based and the company can "over talk and confuse with all the BS jargon.. that they make it sound much more complicated and confusing than it really is.. therefore.. hosing and screwing the people who are paying ..

Wilma · April 12, 2011, 01:08:22 PM

Teresa, are you saying that our county officials were "hosed and screwed"?

srkruzich · April 12, 2011, 02:19:29 PM

Quote from: Wilma on April 12, 2011, 01:08:22 PM
Teresa, are you saying that our county officials were "hosed and screwed"?

I'd say they were! The actual cost is not very much. Where I make money on hosting is in managment of the site. I do all the installation and setups of software. They do their own website design or if they want someone to do it, i have someone that does it on a per page basis for them.

Teresa · April 12, 2011, 02:22:11 PM

what I am saying is........... a 12 year old who had minimal time playing around with computer graphics could have made that simple webpage and the few links that are on there.( some of which there is no content)
Whoever okay"d that amount ( and I would really like to know who made that site and what they charged) had not a clue as to what they were paying for. Because by the looks of it all~~ It's not much of a site.. ( just my opinion of course..)
So~~ I guess to answer your question Wilma.............
Hosed and screwed... ? uhhhhh~~ yep..

srkruzich · April 12, 2011, 02:36:15 PM

Quote from: Teresa on April 12, 2011, 02:22:11 PM
what I am saying is........... a 12 year old who had minimal time playing around with computer graphics could have made that simple webpage and the few links that are on there.( some of which there is no content)
Whoever okay"d that amount ( and I would really like to know who made that site and what they charged) had not a clue as to what they were paying for. Because by the looks of it all~~ It's not much of a site.. ( just my opinion of course..)
So~~ I guess to answer your question Wilma.............
Hosed and screwed... ? uhhhhh~~ yep..

Mannatron.com.

THey apparantly are raking in some bucks at 2400 a year......
current portfolio is
Gray County    Russell County Econ Dev    Sumner County
Ottawa County    Smith County    Russell County Convention
& Visitors Bureau
Doniphan County    Meade County    Cloud County
Elk County    United Transportation Union    Saline County
Osborne County     Brown County    Scott County
Osage County     Geary County    St Fidelis Church
Marion County    Jackson County     Lincoln County
Rush County     Pawnee County    Marshall County
Wilson County     Sherman County     City of Hesston
Trego County     Russell County     Morris County

http://www.kansasgov.com/
72,000 dollars a year off of local towns.

So much for supporting local community huh!

Sarah · April 12, 2011, 02:39:13 PM

I do website design and it's not much much of a page. No special graphics, nothing exciting. Tables is about all it is. Real simple graphics and links. $2400 a year is pretty high and considering he hosts 30 Kansas counties, not to mention who else he does, that's a nice chunk of change. I know Steve does hosting as he hosts several of my sites and I KNOW I don't pay $2400 a year. LOL

flintauqua · April 12, 2011, 02:48:28 PM

I could be wrong on this (since I've been away from the courthouse for several years) but for the supposed $2400, I believe Elk County is getting more than just website design, hosting and maintenance from Manatron and their subsidiary Infinetec. I believe they are also getting proprietary property and tax management software for the appraissors, treasurer, and register of deeds office.