ELIZABETHTOWN — The Essex County Personnel committee approved a settlement request from County Attorney Daniel Manning with Fidelity and Deposit Company in Maryland the attorney described as “excellent.”
The county will pay the company $179,192 over a dispute from work done by Tougher Industries, Inc., at the public safety building in Lewis.
In 2010, F&D served the county with a compliant seeking $1,452,659 in damages for alleged breaches of contract with Tougher after the company had filed for bankruptcy.
“This is an excellent settlement that took forever,” Manning said. “We had a $1 million fund so I would say we settle and put this whole thing behind us.”
Manning added the county would also have to figure out what they would do with the remaining amount of the money.
County Manager Dan Palmer said one area the county could use the funding would be to upgrade information technology equipment, describing the need as “critical.”
Palmer said the need was more in equipment then security, which he said was strong. But protecting the county’s cyber infrastructure is a daily battle for the IT staff, he said.
“My IT people here at the county can tell you they have lists from China, Russia — all over the world with a litany of attempts to get into our systems,” Palmer said. “We have been fortunate enough in some senses, but it is an ongoing battle every day when it comes to the issue of cyber security.”
