Y2K meltdown or just a lot of hype?

Daily Pilot staff

On Friday when the clocks turn over at 12:01 a.m., the world will be

waiting to see what happens. Will power be out everywhere? Will there be

terrorist attacks at large gatherings? Or will we all just shrug our

shoulders when everything is the same as it always was?

Here’s a look at how our local municipalities are preparing for the

potential Y2K meltdown:

NEWPORT BEACH

City officials say they’re not worried about Y2K disasters because

they’ve got all the bases covered.

“There’s been fairly extensive checking for every department,” said Vice

Mayor Gary Adams.

Not only will city staff be on call, but most departments have beefed up

staffing for New Year’s Eve. This includes general service workers and

the public utilities department, as well as fire and police departments.

Councilman Dennis O’Neil, who heads the board of directors at Hoag

Hospital, said the health-care facility is also ready and has contingency

plans for water should systems fail.

“All of our fire and public safety personnel are on call,” said a

confident Mayor John Noyes. “We’ve got extra people on utilities and

backup generators for water.”

COSTA MESA

The city’s computer guru says he’s ready for Y2K.

“We’ve upgraded almost everything,” said Richard Kirkbride, who has been

Costa Mesa’s information services manager since March. “All stoplights,

utilities, services, fire stations ... You name it, we’ve done it.”

In 1996, the city began replacing obsolete software and hardware that

could potentially be affected when digital clocks reach 01/01/00.

Kirkbride and his predecessor, Gerald Verewolf, also prepared contingency

plans if phone lines and sewer lines go out.

A local group of ham radio operators will be on standby if their

communications are needed. The Orange County Sanitary District bought new

pumps that will keep pumping even if city computer networks go down.

And several city staff members, including Kirkbride himself, will remain

champagne-free in case they are called on to respond with their computer

expertise.

But all in all, Kirkbride said he doesn’t expect anything too dramatic to

happen on New Year’s Eve.

“We expect it will be far less than the press has made it sound,” he

said.

NEWPORT-MESA UNIFIED

In preparation for the coming new year, the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District has taken numerous precautions for Y2K.

The district has a large mainframe running all of the payroll and human

resource programs, said Alan Engard, director of information technology

for the district.

Technicians have experimented with dates, setting computers to 2000, then

running software.

The software in all school libraries was updated over the summer to be

Y2K compliant, officials said. Computers that track students, their

grades and most business programs are also Y2K compliant.

Individual computers on school campuses are expected to roll over with

minimal problems, Engard said.

As a last resort, the district has stockpiled 20 to 25 desktop computers

in a warehouse.

Not only is the district ready in case of emergency, Engard said, but he

doesn’t believe it will be necessary.

“I think a lot of the hype that computers won’t start up in the year 2000

is overblown,” he said. “If we even use two of these 25 1/8extra

computers 3/8, I’d be very surprised.”