diff --git a/smartassist/src/startservices.py b/smartassist/src/startservices.py
index 684befb..7f05e6f 100644
--- a/smartassist/src/startservices.py
+++ b/smartassist/src/startservices.py
@@ -5,13 +5,13 @@ import yaml
 import json
 import socket
 import urllib.parse
+from backend import run_flask
 import logging
 import utils
-from utils import configure_logging
-from backend import run_flask
+from utils import GlobalState
 
-configure_logging()  # Configure root logger. The level will be adjusted later based on config file
-logger = logging.getLogger(__name__) # Logger for this module, inherit properties of the root logger
+global_state = GlobalState() # Configure root logger. The level will be adjusted later based on config file
+logger = global_state.getLogger(__name__)  # Logger for this module, inherit properties of the root logger
 
 def configure():
     """
@@ -46,17 +46,10 @@ def configure():
     # Extract global logging level
     ####################################
     if isinstance(updated_config.get('logging'), dict): # Look for 'logging' key in config file
-        # logging.info("found key 'logging' in config file")
         logging_config = updated_config['logging'] 
         if isinstance(logging_config.get('level'), str): # Set to value of the yaml file if specified
-            # logging.info("found key 'level' in config file")
-            utils.log_level = logging_config['level'] 
-            numeric_log_level = getattr(logging, utils.log_level, None)
-
-    rlogger = logging.getLogger() # Get the root logger
-    rlogger.setLevel(numeric_log_level) 
-    # set_local_logger(logger) # Set log level for logger based on log_level
-    logger.info("Global variable utils.log_level set to: {}".format(utils.log_level))
+            global_state.set_log_level(logging_config['level'])
+            logger.debug("configure(): This logger now has effective log level %s", logger.getEffectiveLevel())
 
     ####################################
     # Extract and export API endpoint as 
@@ -70,7 +63,7 @@ def configure():
                 api = updated_config['backend'].get('api')
                 backend_api_ep = url+api # Extract API endpoint if defined
     logger.debug("BE_API_ENDPOINT is set to '{}'".format(backend_api_ep))
-    os.environ['BE_API_ENDPOINT'] = backend_api_ep 
+    os.environ['BE_API_ENDPOINT'] = backend_api_ep # Look into alternative way to share this with backend.py
 
     return updated_config
 
@@ -113,6 +106,6 @@ def start_backend(config):
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     conf = configure() # Read config from file and set up config dict
     logger.debug('conf dictionary set to {}'.format(json.dumps(conf, indent=4)))
-    # start_frontend(config=conf) 
+    # start_frontend(config=conf) # Not needed as we are using Flask for backend now
     start_backend(config=conf)