Council discusses cloud phone system, village-hall AV upgrade and police building addition

Council members reviewed proposals to replace the village telephone system and to upgrade Village Hall audio-visual equipment, and they heard an optional plan for a police-department building addition estimated at about $110,000.

On telephony, staff presented two broad options: an on-premise voice system with higher upfront cost and lower annual support, and a cloud-hosted service with a lower initial price but higher ongoing fees. Staff summarized the estimates as roughly $25,000–$30,000 upfront with about $3,000 annually for an on-premise solution versus lower upfront (staff said $5,000–$10,000 in some estimates) and $7,000–$10,000 in annual costs for a cloud equivalent. Staff also noted potential integration tasks with the village’s ADP network and that the village’s current equipment uses Windows-based backbones that can become unsupported over time, making cloud a potentially more future-proof option.

Why it matters: the phone decision affects annual operating costs and long-term maintenance obligations; the council placed a $20,000 placeholder for a new telephony system in the special lands and buildings budget and kept the item in the initial draft for further review.

AV and police building details: staff described a proposed Village Hall microphone upgrade that would replace desktop microphones with suspended ceiling microphones to provide a cleaner external audio feed (for live streaming to YouTube). On the police building addition, staff presented drawings and an estimate of roughly $110,000 to add two ADA bathrooms with showers and extra storage, and to connect the police building to a new garage entrance so officers would not need to exit the building to access the garage. Staff described that the police-department operating budget overall was expected to be roughly $2,000,000, and noted the garage addition is optional and would not be included in the 2026 budget at this stage.

Next steps: staff left placeholders in the draft budget (including $20,000 for the telephone system and $3,000 for police-department flooring in the special lands and buildings budget) and were instructed to obtain more precise vendor quotes and alignment with IT/telecom requirements (including any needed port openings or ADT/third-party coordination). No final purchasing decisions or contract awards were made at the meeting.