The Village of Cobleskill could soon be storing its water bill data in the Cloud.
At a special meeting last Tuesday that also addressed some unrelated billing and budget issues, trustees agreed to spend about $7,600 on updated software for its Trimble—a handheld device that records water usage for billing.
First, though, Blair Supply Corporation’s John Murphy, who detailed options that also include going cellular, will make sure the Trimble can be updated to handle the new software.
If not, the village will need a new Trimble as well.
Water Superintendent Joe Redmond said the Trimble works well, but the software it runs on is no longer supported by manufacturer Badger, and he’s running into problems communicating with the billing software.
The village could go a step beyond storing data in the Cloud and switch to cellular service for the Trimble, Mr. Murphy said, but in addition to the additional expense, Mr. Redmond said there would be no real benefit to having the same available data 24/7.

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Also Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Howard Burt and trustees discussed moving the payday to Monday for all employees—right now, some are paid Fridays and some are paid Mondays—and discussed a resolution needed to pay health insurance bills before the due date.
Deputy Clerk Jennifer Redmond said because of when the health insurance bills come due and when the village meets, they had already been pre-paying them, but legally, the village needs to pass a resolution to allow them to pre-pay.
The office is still short a village clerk and that’s meant other problems.
Trustees agreed to shorten the hours the office was open Monday, January 8, and Tuesday, January 9 because deputy clerks had doctors appointments and vacations scheduled.
They’re also trying to sort out the question of why several properties on Borst Noble Road had their water bills erroneously put on their tax bills; in the case of one homeowner that’s a $4,000 error that will need action by County Real Property to correct.
Finally, Code Enforcement Officer Mike Piccolo got permission to spend about $2,000 to update his codes books.
Mr. Piccolo said it looks like there’s plenty of money for the updates in his budget--in part because the salary for his former Codes secretary Nellie Mooney, who’s been gone for more than a year, appears to still be in his budget—another error.