The Republic Newspaper 11/20/1998

Nothing the county does to prevent catastrophes that could occur because of computer problems when the year 2000 hits will matter if the lights go out. State regulatory agents that oversee the electric companies aren't pleased with the companies progress towards compliance, according to Oakel Hardy, who handles the Bartholomew County's computer system. "It does not make much difference what we do if we have no electricity to run on," Hardy said. The county will have to do what it can do and pray everybody else is doing what they're supposed to do, he said. County commissioners held a meeting Thursday to present information on what the county's breen doing to alleviate Y2K problems and address what still needs to be done. When programmers programmed computers, they used only the last 2 digits to identify the year. When the year 2000 hits, many computers will turn over to 1900 instead of 2000, causing many computer systems to fail. County services, including emergency response systems, utilities and traffic lights could stop, elevators and doors in the jail could get stuck, and taxes might not get billed or paychecks cut. "If this does happen, people will turn to the government to do something about it," said Vernon Jewell, county auditor. The county started addressing the problem in late 1995, according to Hardy. The county surveyed it's software venders and found about 70% are compliant, as are the mainframe and server, Hardy said. All but a few PC's have been scheduled to be replaced, and a few have to be manually reset. "I'm feeling very solid on the computer side of things," Hardy said, adding that everything should be tested by March. Also, representatives from the utilities told Hardy water will continue pumping, and Ameritech said the switch that covers phone lines in Bartholmew County is compliant. The Sheriff's department and police department haven't found anything in their radio systems that cause concern, Hardy said. And parts needed to make the sheriff department's call recording system compliant are waiting to be installed, and the police department has budgeted to get the part next year, Hardy said. Engineers are checking the door locking system at the jail, but Hardy said, if it should fail,a contingency plan needs to exist to make sure jailers have enough keys. The issue of embedded processors could cause concern, Hardy said. About 25 billion embedded processors, which serve as the control or monitoring device of a machine, exist, and finding them all is unlikely, Hardy said. Some of the chips don't use the date information to run the equipment, but the machines and equipment that do use the date information could fail if not fixed. "Us being government, we cannot take the chance," Hardy said. Commissioners asked representatives from county offices to form a committee that will take an inventory of any items that might contain an embedded processor. Other things the county needs to do include surveying any vendor that supplies computer software and hardware for equipment in which an interruption in the flow of supply could be dangerous. Also, contingency plans will need to be in place in case something does fail, Hardy said. Documentation will be important to cover the basis and protect the county from lawsuits. "This is going to be a legal bonanza for everybody," said Hardy. The county's been lucky because many of the software and computers that could have caused problems were up for replacement, and money's been budgeted each year for that, Hardy said. The largest part of fixing the problem should be behind the county, he added. Hardy couldn't estimate how much money has been spent to correct the problem or how much will be needed to cover the rest of the changes. "My gut instinct is it isn't going to be very much," Hardy said. Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said that money will continue to be budgeted so taxpayers shouldn't be overburdened. "It's been planned for."

SO THEY STARTED IN 1995, STILL AREN'T DONE AND HAVEN'T TOUCHED AN EMBEDDED SYSTEM! GLAD THEY'RE WORKING ON THOSE CONTINGENCY PLANS....

-- Alivein2001 (sarmstro@seidata.com), November 20, 1998

Answers

TO: All posters of long messages

May we have a few paragraph breaks next time, for ease of reading, please?

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 21, 1998.

What I meant was that it is necessary to have a blank line between paragraphs in order not to have them run together by the forum's mechanical message formatter.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 21, 1998.

Thanks, No Spam Please, for that simple hint.

I have been wondering how to do this.

(Let's see if it works.)

-- Lois Knorr (knorr@attcanada.net), November 21, 1998.

Sorry about that ... now back to the subject at hand --

The good news is that it sounds like Bartholomew County is ahead of 80% of other counties. :-} They started early. They're talking about elevators getting stuck (realistic) instead of falling to the basement (not realistic). They have "parts needed to make the sheriff department's call recording system compliant" on hand, not just on order (except, what's it mean that "the police department has budgeted to get the part next year" ?? :-(.

Bad news: Almost everything else. Lots and lots of stuff "scheduled" or otherwise not yet done.

And, "getting stuff" next year may be a bit more difficult than getting stuff in previous years.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 21, 1998.

Guess I should also have posted that this is a small city of less than 50,000. So if they started in 1995 and still haven't finished that doesn't bode well for the larger cities that are just starting.

Some areas of concern: The sheriff and police depts. haven't found anything in their radio systems to cause concern. HAVE THEY BEEN TESTED? VERIFIED COMPLIANT? IF NOT, WILL THEY BE? WHEN?

They have a compliant part ordered for the police depts. recording system. It's due to be delivered next year. JAN? FEB?....DEC.?

They are "forming a committee" (HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE HEARD THIS PHRASE LATELY?)to inventory embedded processors. NOT EVEN STARTED ON THIS AND THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE PROBLEM SINCE 1995.

LET'S SEE, I BELIEVE THERE IS ROOM FOR ANOTHER 50lb. BAG OF RICE IN THE STORAGE ROOM. (:-

-- Alive in 2001 (sarmstro@seidata.com), November 21, 1998.

Best of all....they are talking about it, checking things, looking at things. This is the real world kind of progress report that we "aren't" seeing from the federal and state governments.

The county isn't finished yet - not good, but its okay, its not over yet. But I do hear the "fat lady's warning up".

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 22, 1998.

Columbus, Indiana is the major city of Bartholomew County. According to 60 minutes several years ago, Bartholomew County was in the top ten richest counties per capata in the United States. Cummins Engine Company is located here as well as one other fortune 500 company. Columbus is one of the most beautiful citys in the country and has more archetecture for the size of the city than any other city in the country. So, this should explain why they are closer to compliance than most other cities. If Columbus had 1 million citizens they would be further along then most citys. Its the makeup of the leadership in Columbus that will make it possible to conquer Y2K, and they will. The only problem is the rest of the country will implode pulling citys like Columbus down with them.

-- Michael Kessler (mkessler0101@sprynet.com), November 26, 1998.

I live in Indiana and travel to columbus frequently. My husband works for the top utility company there. He knows what is going on there and they are not going to lose power due to the "utility"problems. Doesn't gurantee any of the other things, but the utility company is on top of things. (He's in "IT")

-- deborah cunningham (dac@ccrtc.com), November 26, 1998.