Bellevue officials are being asked to save money and paper by switching to netbooks for delivery of borough documents, but the move is making some officials a bit nervous.

The idea is to save the borough about $2,500 each year in paper, copier and staff costs by making documents available for download from a secure borough “sharepoint.”

Although council voted Tuesday to purchase up to 10 netbooks at a total cost of no more than $3,000, council member Linda Woshner -- participating by phone after being released from the hospital -- questioned a proposed policy that would require council members to pay to replace the netbook if it was stolen or damaged through no fault of their own.

Council member Susan Viscusi said that her main opportunity to review the many papers delivered to officials comes at a time when she is in a location where she cannot have a computer. She asked if she could continue to receive paper copies, and was told by director of administrative services Doug Sample that she could print copies herself, but that it would be more cost-efficient if the borough no longer supplied hard copies.

Council member Mark Helbling -- who chaired the meeting in the absence of council president Kathy Coder, who also participated by phone, and Woshner -- said that he would support officials receiving documents in any form they wanted, but asked that each council member make an effort to use the netbooks.