FAITH — Faith will be going digital in the near future, as the town’s board of aldermen are discussing how best to implement a town website.

The discussion began when Fire Chief Scott Gardner brought the fire department’s wishes to have a server before the board during its February meeting. Gardner said that the department wanted a server so that the new part-time employees the department had hired could have one universal space for emails and departmental communications.

During February’s discussion, Gardner offered to have the fire department pay for the server, including holding a domain name for the town, themselves from their own fundraising. The board of aldermen agreed that the fire department should not have to pay for it themselves and the town should help out.

During the meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Pro Tem Dale Peeler reported that he had done some digging and talked to some firms in regards to getting a server for the town. Peeler also said that he had spoken with a grants management specialist about how the town could proceed with paying for the servers and upgrading some of the features of the town hall.

Some of the upgrades Peeler spoke about included dual monitors for town employees, a new phone system and new cameras.

Mayor Randall Barger also reported that he had spoken with a representative of the Miller-Davis Agency about the possibility of creating a website for the town.

Peeler said that the grants management specialist told him that the town should start getting bids for both the town hall upgrades and the server in order to move forward with the project.

Several separate discussions involving the future town emails and computer upgrades also came following the initial reports. Town Clerk Karen Fink asked the board for permission to pay some of the bills online due to issues with checks not being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Fink asked for and received permission from the board to pay routine charges online where possible.

Peeler noted that the new computer systems would not only make paying the bills online simpler, it would also make it easier to keep records because receipts and statements would all be in one place and organized.

“When we talk about the new computer system, if you’re able to pay that Lowe’s bill online. Then you’ve got the receipt that comes up and you’re able to attach it to your Lowe’s files and you never had one piece of paper touch your desk,” Peeler said.

Peeler also asked during the meeting if it would be possible for the town to create uniform business cards for the members of the board. He noted that the cards would have to wait until the town’s emails are up and running so that they could put everyone’s government emails on the cards instead of their personal ones.

In other news from the meeting, the board received updated information on the lead and copper testing that the state required. One of the houses that was tested did show copper levels barely above the accepted level. Gardner noted that further testing has revealed that some of the higher lead testing was due to installations on some of the private properties, as well as the copper being present in an older home. He had reassured the board when the tests first came back that there was no lead in the town’s water system and he said further testing has proved that.

The board also received the results of a study looking at pedestrian and biking improvements on Main Street. The study, which was done at no cost to the town, recommended approximately $2,250,000 in sidewalk and street upgrades, which the aldermen agreed was too large a cost at this time and the improvements were far down the priority list.