Funding approved to buy 1,700 state computers

State workers who have been nursing that now ancient computer for years should soon start seeing modern replacements show up on their desks.

The Board of Examiners on Tuesday approved spending more than $1 million to replace a total of 1,745 computers in the executive branch.

Deputy Director of Administration Mike Torvinen told the Board of Examiners agencies have not replaced the old computers in part because of the state’s budget woes over the past several years. He said it’s time to replace them now because Microsoft has announced it will no longer support the XP operating system in those computers. That technical support, he said, goes away in April 2014.

He said a total of $8 million was included in the Executive Budget because officials knew this was coming. The initial buy will cost $1,082,879. More computers will be identified for replacement at a later date.

The agencies submitting the largest list for replacement are corrections at $370,836 and Welfare Field Services at $300,905.

In other business, the board:

Approved $382,000 as the state’s 40-percent share of a contract providing wildland fuels reduction and clearing in the Tahoe Basin. The purpose of the program is to prevent catastrophic fires in the basin. The other 60 percent of the money is coming from the profits from the sale of federal lands in Southern Nevada.

Approved changes to the state Administrative Manual to enable agencies to settle stale claims worth $100 or less in house instead of having to as examiners to approve them.

Approved two contracts totaling more than $5.7 million to provide both general medical services and psychiatric services at Rawson-Neal hospital in Southern Nevada.