By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
After many years, the IT director for the city of Hays is finally close to getting his fervent wish - a new home for the city's data center.
The proposed project is in conjunction with the city's third fire station, currently under construction at 41st and Post Road in the northwest part of town, Chad Ruder explained to city commissioners during Thursday's work session.
"I care deeply for the firefighters," he said with a smile, "but this is actually more for me on the second point.
"My entire career I've wanted to design a data center and get things out of the flood plain."
The city's server headquarters and fire department headquarters are both currently housed in city hall, 1507 Main, in downtown Hays.
The building is in the flood plain and has flooded several times over the years. It also has a flat roof susceptible to leaks during hard rains.
"I can't enjoy clouds in the sky," Ruder said. "If it looks like it's going to rain, I think of the times when I'm down here when either flooding comes from the ground or the flat roof situation that we have.
"Just back here in the hall one time, we had a good four inches of rain pouring out. It's not some place you want to keep your server."
Most of the city's computer servers are housed in city hall, with some redundancy in the police department, 105 W. 12th.
"Getting out of here and being able to design something that isn't just a closet or an old room that you move your servers to, has been a goal of mine for a very long time."
A city-owned dedicated or "dark" fiber line to the new fire station would be constructed to provide high-speed connectivity for the Hays Fire Department new headquarters and also allow the city’s IT Department to move its core network servers from city hall to the new station.
"We've gotta have something rock solid if the servers are sitting somewhere else to feed the rest of the city," Ruder said.
The project is being done in coordination with Ellis County and the construction of its new public works facility, lowering costs for both entities.
The low bid from Nex-Tech, Hays, of $94,608 came in lower than what was budgeted for the city's portion.
The county's share of $144,866 is larger because of the further distance to the new public works building. County commissioners approved their bid during their meeting Tuesday.
Although the cable would be shared from city hall, the individual fiber strands within the cable would be completely segregated allowing the city and county to each have 12 dedicated strands for current needs and future growth to the new facilities.
In other business, commissioner heard from Jesse Rohr, director of public works, about the KCWI Addition final plat. This is an infill plat on the site of the former St. John’s Nursing Home in the 2400 block of Canterbury.
The proposed plat includes six total lots ranging in size from 7,426 sq. ft. to 27,964 sq. ft., allowing for future development of multi-family housing on the property owned by KC Western Investments.
The Hays Area Planning Commission has already approved the final plat and city staff is recommending approval as well.
Commissioner will vote on both items at their Sept. 28 meeting.