CITY DONATES OUTGROWN COMPUTERS TO NONPROFITS.Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer The city and the library illustrated Tuesday that one agency's old, obsolete computer system is another's link to the Internet. The Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. Library, a few short steps away from City Hall on Tapo Canyon Road, was the first recipient of the city's hand-me-down PCs, being given up to make way for newer Pentium models. Instead of selling the old model 486 PCs for parts or at auction, the city has decided to make them available to local nonprofit organizations Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. to upgrade their systems. ``The value is far greater putting it out to nonprofits than trying to sell them,'' said Mayor Bill Davis For the artist, animator, creative director, see . For the baseball player, see .
The city estimates that it would be able to sell the computers for between $25 and $100, earning roughly $6,950 for all 139 machines if they sold for the median price. For the library alone, the gift of 10 computers represents about a $20,000 savings - and a chance to have more than one public computer hooked up to the Internet. Even though the library will have to pay to have the computers rewired and buy some new software, the biggest expense would have been the hardware itself, officials said. Noting that many computer users are children and teens, Davis said that having the computers in the library seemed like a good fit. ``The children really know how to use them,'' he said. ``The objective is to get children into the library to read, and if computers are the way to bring them in, that's what we should be doing.'' Dale Redfield, principal librarian, said because of a backlog of orders to install the computers countywide, the new machines will not be hooked up until late fall. He added that the library's only computer now hooked up to the Net is usually booked solid up to two days in advance, with users making reservations for the one-hour time slots Continuously repeating interval of time or a time period in which two devices are able to interconnect. . Internet users go online to get help with homework, sign up for free e-mail See Internet e-mail service. accounts and even to shop, he said. The City Council approved the donation program last month. The Ventura County Library Services Agency was the first agency to request donations. Other requests will be evaluated by the council as they are received. In total, the city is expected to replace 149 PCs from various departments, including accounting and general services. Although most still are operable operable /op·er·a·ble/ (op´er-ah-b'l) subject to being operated upon with a reasonable degree of safety; appropriate for surgical removal. op·er·a·ble adj. , they are obsolete because they cannot run some of the city's new software. The city is keeping eight of them to use as backups and for spare parts Spare parts, also referred to as Service Parts is a term used to indicate extra parts available and in proximity to the mechanical item, such as a automobile, boat, engine, for which they might be used. Spare parts are also called “spares. , and two will be used at the police station for a scanning workstation and a fuel monitoring system. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Simi Valley Mayor Pro Tem [Latin, For the time being.] An abbreviation used for pro tempore, Latin for "temporary or provisional." A person who acts as a temporary substitute serves pro tem. Paul Miller, left, Librarian Dale Redfield and Mayor Bill Davis were pleased with the donation of computers. Eric Grigorian/Special to the Daily News |
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