Article on replacing Civiq kiosks. civiq.com shutdown in 2015? and civiqsmartscapes.com was born. See 2021 — https://web.archive.org/web/20210224133415/https://www.civiq.com/
Here’s a concise summary of the article about the Bexar County kiosks.
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Bexar County spent about $500,000 on a network of interactive kiosks that were supposed to provide information, charge phones, and offer other services to the public.
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The kiosks have reportedly not worked for roughly two years, sitting dark or frozen in place around county facilities.
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Despite facing a significant budget deficit, county officials are now proposing to replace or upgrade the non‑functioning kiosk system instead of removing it entirely.
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Some county leaders and taxpayers are questioning why the county would put more money into a system that never reliably worked, especially given other budget pressures.
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County staff say the original vendor relationship and technology didn’t perform as expected, and they argue that an upgraded system could finally deliver the intended public‑facing benefits if properly implemented and maintained.
The article itself does not say the kiosks failed because of ants, but there is at least one follow‑on piece that mentions ants damaging equipment as part of the broader story.
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The News 4 San Antonio piece you linked focuses on the cost, downtime, and replacement plan; it does not attribute the failure to ants in the text.
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A related podcast episode about the same Bexar County kiosk situation explicitly mentions “ants chewing through wires” as one of the issues tied to the broken system, suggesting insect damage was at least a contributing factor that’s being discussed publicly.
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Separately, local coverage in Bexar County has documented “crazy ants” being attracted to electrical equipment and short‑circuiting electronics in the region, which is consistent with the idea that ants can ruin kiosk internals.
So:
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Yes, ants chewing on wiring are mentioned in related coverage as a problem affecting the kiosks.
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The main TV article frames the story around non‑working, expensive kiosks and the county’s desire to upgrade them, without making ants the central or sole cause.
If you want to quote this for kioskindustry.org, I’d phrase it as “local reports and a related podcast say ants chewed through wiring in some units” rather than “the official root cause was ants.”