NEW SHARON — A special town meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, to ask that selectmen be authorized to spend up to $10,000 for a new computer system and to retrieve data from a server that crashed on Oct. 25.

The money would come from the surplus account.

Lorna Nichols, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, said about two months of data was lost, but a New Hampshire company retrieved it for an estimated $3,200. 

Expenet Technologies in Wilton and a service in Oakland have provided estimates of over $3,000 for a new system and installation. 

The $10,000 would also allow for unforeseen needs and the cost of transporting the computer hard drive, the primary data storage device, to and from New Hampshire, Nichols said. The hard drive was a refurbished one that has been used for quite a while, she said.

If voters approve spending the money, the new computer system could be up and running in perhaps four to six days, Nichols said.

If voters don’t approve it, staff will have to go through hard copies to retrieve information.  

“That will costs thousands, too,”  in time and labor, she said. “We are convenience-based, no one wants to wait an hour for someone to go through records.”

The warrant is posted on the town website, at the Town Office, Sandy River Farm Market and Douin’s Market & Diner in New Sharon.

abryant@sunmediagroup.net