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Montour School District has approved a new five-year copier contract with a division of the same company the district paid for duplicate, overlapping copier leases for 12 months back in 2009 and 2010.

The school board in June voted to enter into the new contract with Paperless Technologies, a division of Connellsville-based Ford Business Machines Inc.

From August 2009 through July 2010, the district paid $325,000 to Ford Business for two overlapping copier leases. The district later received a partial refund of $80,000 from the company. According to Ford Business officials at the time, the duplicate payments occurred because district administrators did not allow the company to install new equipment as part of a renegotiated lease.

This year, when the school district sought proposals for a copier contract, Paperless Technologies came in with the lowest bid in all of the district’s requirements, Montour superintendent Michael Ghilani said.

Paperless Technologies will replace an expired contract with ComDoc, which provided a central copy center that was costing the district about $26,000 per month, Mr. Ghilani said. Reflected in that price was the cost for ComDoc to buy out the two contracts with Ford Business, he said.

The most the district will spend under the new contract with Paperless Technologies is $8,000 per month, Mr. Ghilani said. That will cut costs by two-thirds, providing an estimated savings of $218,000 per year, he said.

He said he is comfortable with the new contract, noting that those who were involved with the district at the time of the Ford Business contracts are no longer there.

The copy center concept was not working for the district, said Mr. Ghilani, who added that among other issues, employees were ordering five to 10 extra copies of items because they were unable to easily make extra copies as needed. Under the new contract, copiers will be available throughout the district and be faster.

According to Mr. Ghilani, the district invited five of the largest copier companies in the region to make proposals based on a list of requirements. ComDoc was included in the request for proposals, Susan Sinicki, human resources director, said.

Sonja Reis, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.

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