DALTON, Mass. — Technology moves fast. The government doesn't.

Except maybe this time. 

It was on Sept. 7 that Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito handed an application for a Community Compact agreement to town officials. 

On Thursday, just two months later, she was back to sign an agreement to get the town's technology infrastructure moving as well. 

The technology Dalton officials use is behind the times. Town Hall doesn't have a server to back up files and documents. Town officials are saving things to flash drives and filing paperwork. 

 

There is a much better way but towns often don't have the ability to do major IT upgrades either because of funding for lack of specialized staff to do it.

 

That's where the state is stepping in. The Community Compact agreement officials signed with Polito on Thursday is part of a program to bring money and technical assistance to towns to make government more efficient. 

 

The towns adopt a "best practice" from a list the administrative office has provided and the agreement brings state resources to implement it.

 

For Dalton, the state will provide up to $200,000 and expertise for the town to first perform an assessment of its IT structure and then secondly build the offsite backup server.

 

"We can always do more and better in delivering services," Polito said. "We at the state level are always looking for innovative approaches to provide better services in the commonwealth and our partners in municipal government across the state are doing just the same."

 

Polito and Gov. Charlie Baker both come from working in municipal government. The Community Compact program was one of the first it rolled out as a way to partner with cities and towns. 

 

"That experience has been invaluable for me and the governor. This community compact program has been quite successful in helping communities of all sizes and in all places," Polito said.

 

Dalton becomes the 314th municipality in the state to sign a compact. Other towns have used it for assistance in regionalization efforts, revamp the budgeting process and bringing in new forecasting models, craft new master plans, and more. 

 

Polito had encouraged the town to apply for the compact assistance after delivering a Green Communities grant in September.