Telecommunications & E-Government Project

West Point won the 2002 Municipal Excellence Award for its Telecommunications and E-Government Project in the subject category of "Planning and Economic Development" for municipalities with populations over 2,500. The award was presented at the Mississippi Municipal League's* annual convention. The Municipal Excellence Award recognizes cities and towns that have made a concentrated effort to better the lives of their citizens.

The West Point telecommunications and E-Government Project is an ambitious effort to link the entire town of West Point with a 21st century telecommunications infrastructure and E-Government info-structure. The city has created a comprehensive internal network of local government electronic communications, established the basis for the availability of inexpensive electronic access by the public to local government services, and continues to mature toward the development of applications and delivery mechanisms for E-Government services designed for everyday life.

The E-Government telecommunications network for West Point consists of several miles of 144 circuit fiber optic cable which forms a loop around the city. The loop carries digital communications at speeds of 100 megabits per second and has the capacity of about 65 T-1 broadband circuits. Every municipal building in the city, as well as numerous facilities of Clay County, the schools, libraries, and other quasi-public facilities are connected to the network. The network is controlled by a centralized computing center and it was constructed and maintained by city employees.

Here is a brief listing of some of the benefits of West Point's E-Government system.

• Computer Aided Dispatch for a consolidated Police Department/Clay County Sheriff's Department.
• Consolidated Criminal Investigation files for all local law enforcement agencies.
• Computerized central booking and jail management.
• Computerized Municipal Court operations.
• Water, Electric, and Sanitation billing.
• Accounting, budgeting, and financial management for all general government and enterprise funds of the city.
• Centralized purchasing, receiving, and invoice tracking, on line and in real time.
• Interactive voter registration.
• Interactive Privilege License processing.
• National Criminal Information Computer real time information exchange.
• Real time inventory management.
• Internal and external email.
• Internet information interchange.
• Multiple broadband connections to the Internet and other networks.
• A local Internet Service Provider (WestNet) available to all citizens of Clay County.
• A comprehensive worldwide website that connects the public, to the government, to the world.

The whole purpose of the West Point Telecommunications and E-Government Project has been to improve the quality of public service and livability of the community. This system has helped make West Point one of the most attractive cities in the state by lowering the cost of living, increasing the city's efficiency, creating a safer community, and providing a technologically advanced business environment.

________________________________

* The Mississippi Municipal League is a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan association of the 297 city and town governments in Mississippi. Established in 1931, the MML represents municipal interests at state and national levels of government.