While Apple's iPad tablet might be looked at as a luxury item for some, one town in North Carolina is using the top-selling gadget in a money-saving manner instead. Cornelius, N.C., (population: 25,000) has abandoned its beefy paper agendas in favor of iPads at its regular meetings. In a recent interview with the New York Times, town manager Anthony Roberts explained that the move towards iPads is designed to not only be a bit greener, but also to save local taxpayers a bit of money.
Normally, upwards of 4,000 paper pages are used and then discarded for each of the town's biweekly get-togethers, equalling over 100,000 pieces of paper every year. Combine that with the hours it takes to print, sort, and distribute the paperwork, and you quickly see where time and money could be saved. Now, each board member — along with the mayor and police chief, for a total of 16 officials — has his or her own iPad which can receive meeting agendas and other critical town news electronically.
Roberts estimates that between paper, copying, and personnel costs, it will be a little over a year before the $500 iPads pay for themselves, and from that point forward the savings will pile up. Of course, the obvious question is how will the town's citizens know that the shiny new tablets they paid for are being used for work, and not play? Roberts notes, "We have a policy you're not supposed to be looking at undesirable sites. I don't think the commissioners would do that."
Posts
