The Village of Dennison is making progress on complying with a state bill regarding technology.
House Bill 96 was signed into law in June 2025 mandating all counties, townships, municipalities, and school districts to adopt a formal cybersecurity program.
Dennison Fiscal Officer Jennifer Jones says they are in a contract with Pioneer 360, and the next step is for all employees to review a handbook.
“We have to have an employee IT security handbook. Everybody will have to sign and date that they’ve read it. All employees are going to get one.”
Jones says then comes a large binder that will be given to all department heads which instructs steps to take in the event of a cyber threat.
“It is all the policies and procedures for this new cyber security. It’s going to have a map in there if we get hacked who gets notified first. I’m going to put me on there and then basically I have to notify Pioneer and then I have to let the state know.”
Jones agreed with the mayor on how the state enacted this law but did not provide any support.
“Yeah, there was no money from the state to help with any of the cost for anything. Installing all this, buying all new computers, and printing out all the policies and procedures.”
A GRC Committee was also created with councilwoman Tracie Bolitho the chair and each department will have a representative. Police Chief Todd Beeman said overall this will benefit the village.
“If there are issues or if there are new things implemented the committee would need to address those. There are a lot of issues when it comes to cyber security and it can be very overwhelming but it’s a good thing for the village, at least for the village hall.”
The committee is expected to meet every few months.
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