E911 Board buys needed equipment

    The County E911 Board approved the purchase of about $122,000 in 911 equipment for the dispatch center at its meeting Tuesday night. The equipment is for receiving 911 calls, and was purchased from a company called Positron Power based in Montreal, Canada. The purchase occurred at a joint meeting with the County Communications Commission. Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells said the cost of the equipment came in under budget. The board planned on spending about $125,000 on the equipment.

    Sorrells said the dispatch center?s current equipment is 5 years old, which means it is antiquated by emergency equipment standards. She said that kind of equipment should be replaced every three or four years.

    ?We have done things to maintain the equipment, but it?s showing its age,? said Sorrells.

    Bob Shepherd, the chairman of the commission, said the replacement of the equipment was a ?necessity.?

    The new equipment will be installed in three to four months. At the board?s August meeting, Sorrells said that some of the current 911 equipment might only have six months left of operation. On Wednesday, Sorrells said that ?with attention, we can make our equipment last four more months.?

    At its November meeting, the Communications Commission hired an architectural firm to research the cost of a new dispatch center. The firm they hired is Bracke, Hayes, Miller and Mahon of Moline, Ill. John Mahon will be the man in charge of the dispatch center project. Mahon was the architect who designed the bandstand.

    Shepherd said the commission

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s aware of Mahon?s abilities as an architect, which was why he was chosen. He said Mahon excels at getting people to work together and at amalgamating ideas from many people.

    The commission hired consulting engineer Leonard Koehnen to investigate where it could move the dispatch center. Koehnen prepared a report of his findings, which he presented to the commission in March. Koehnen gave the commission cost estimates of the necessary equipment and of moving the center to various locations such as the current city hall, the second floor of the former library and a brand new building at Orchard Hill. The commission has since dropped city hall from consideration as a location for the center.

    At earlier meetings, Koehnen remarked that he was most knowledgeable about the equipment and reminded the commission he was an engineer, not an architect. Shepherd said an architectural firm was hired to do the ?fine-tuning? on the buildings? cost estimates. 

    Shepherd remarked that the new equipment will be more mobile than the current equipment, which is a plus because it will need to be moved if the communications center is, too. Sorrells said the new equipment can be moved more easily but that there is still a risk of damaging it in transport.

    Sorrells said that if the equipment in the building is moved, the dispatchers may use their old equipment temporarily while they move the new equipment to the new location. Shepherd remarked that the public must have constant access to 911 services if and when the equipment is moved to its new home.

    ?We can?t afford to be down even for five minutes,? said Shepherd. ?You know good and well that?s when something serious could happen.?