City Financial Officer Heather Keith told the personnel, finance and public works committee Monday that to purchase the "must haves" it would cost the city $735 for each, or a total of about $7,500. That is less than half of the $18,945 price tag first anticipated.

"This is something we saw at a Missouri Municipal League conference about two years ago," said Alderman Dale Schmuke. "Since then we have come a long way."

City staff have been looking into "paperless councils," a method of which is to hold meetings using online resources and doing away with some printed copies of meeting information.

City Clerk Jonita Copeland has been working with other staff members to iron out the details of the eco-friendlier method.

Under the paperless concept, all agendas and minutes of meetings can be found online. All documents associated with the meeting are then automatically archived and can be accessed quickly. Hard copy backups would still be necessary for city records.

Aldermen also could access information from home computers and updated information could be sent through e-mail.

If the board agrees to go paperless, aldermen would use laptops to retrieve meeting agendas and supporting information. The paperless meeting concept could make information more accessible to the public, save time and resources - including the time it takes to make copies of the agenda and board packets and the cost to copy and distribute the information.

About one-half of the board members already have been using computers instead of paper board packets during meetings. Aldermen will continue to use laptops during city meetings, and the city will explore the purchase of hardware and software next year.

Alderman Bob Schmuke no longer uses the paper board packets and noted that he does not have much experience with computers.

'What we are doing now is simple," he said.

Aldermen have been asked to complete a survey about the paperless council.

"I encourage everyone to please try to get that survey completed so we can make a decision," said Alderman Dale Schmuke. "I realize that we may not become 100 percent paperless."

Mayor Mike Livengood said he will use a laptop during meetings, but would also like a hard paper copy of board meeting information.

Last July, Keith said the cost for notebook computers and software could be as high as $20,000 for the 10-12 computers needed for the board. Also included in the cost is a document scanner and upgrading Internet access in city hall. The scanner would scan documents into an electronic form.

She added that the city looked into purchasing software for paperless meeting but instead began implementing procedures "in house." City employee Wanda Parsons has been working with Adobe software to develop a system. That has helped cut the costs greatly, Keith said.