Cleveland approves new email addresses, honors commissioner

Published 12:04 am Thursday, April 13, 2023

CLEVELAND — Town employees will soon have new email addresses after the board of commissioners voted to transition to a new domain.

Until now, all the employees’ email addresses have ended in .org but moving forward, those email addresses will end in .gov.

“We have to get an exchange online because our current .org emails are on HostGator,” said Rebekah Brown, the Cleveland finance officer. “We are putting them on exchange now because of how we have our domains set up.”

According to Brown, the move will actually save the town money. 

“(The new service) is $48 per year per user,” Brown said. “The other one was $100 per year per user.”

To get every town employee on board the new network, the board of commissioners allocated $1,950.

It’s a move that Cleveland Mayor Pat Phifer indicated he felt made sense. 

“Everyone needs to have their own email,” Phifer said. “They start adding up, but the savings are significant.”

Honoring Gabriel

The town of Cleveland and the Cleveland Community Volunteer Fire Department will hold a memorial fish fry in honor of Danny Gabriel, the town commissioner who died on April 6.

Gabriel is remembered by his colleagues as an honest, gentle person who cared about everybody. He was also affiliated with the fire department for many years. 

The event will be held on Saturday at the fire department, which is located at 205 School Street in Cleveland.

“It will be from 11 a.m. until we run out,” Phifer said. 

In other town news

The board of commissioners agreed to extend the town’s credit card limit to $2,500.

“We have to set our credit card limit for employees who go to training,” Phifer said. 

The Cleveland Police Department also requested approval to obtain surplus automated external defibrillators (AEDs) from the Cleveland Community Volunteer Fire Department. 

“We are looking to put AEDs in the police cars,” Cleveland Police Chief Jon Jessup said. “I was searching for how much that cost. Speaking with David Derave (Cleveland Community Volunteer Fire Department training captain), he said they were surplussing some.”

Jessup indicated that the process would waive the fire department of liability.

Phifer added, “It’s a good opportunity to save some money and help them get rid of some of their equipment.”