Supervisors receive update on 911 technology

With the potential for upgrades to Henry County?s 911 dispatch equipment, the board of supervisors met June 30 with representatives from CenturyLink, formerly Qwest, to learn more about available options.

Supervisor Chairman Marc Lindeen explained that this meeting was purely informational and that the supervisors were not taking over the E911 board?s territory.

?We need to know so when something?s presented by E911 we understand,? Lindeen said.

Also present at the meeting were County Sheriff Allen Wittmer and Joe Buffington, 911 addressing coordinator, who said that the E911 board is interested in talking about the options available to the county.

There are two components that make up the dispatch equipment: Lifeline 100 and Power 911. The Lifeline 100 is an analog-based controller that the county purchased about 12 to 13 years ago. It has not had any major upgrades to it in this time. The Power 911 was purchased about six years ago and gives the dispatch the ability to use the screen to answer calls.

?You guys aren?t behind the times,? said John Korkie of CenturyLink. ?You?ve made a great investment.?

The equipment still works, but the Lifeline 100 has been discontinued by the manufacturer, so if something went wrong it could be difficult to find parts. Also, the Power 911 has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week for six years. Korkie said that the county should consider how long technology and computers last before they become outdated.

The supervisors were presented with two options.

The first involves getting rid of the Lifeline 100 and installing a VIPER (Voice over IP for Emergency Response) system. This is the newest technology. Lee County has a VIPER and Washington County is in the process of getting one. The VIPER would cost about $126,000, and with a five-year plan for software maintenance at $27,000 and hardware maintenance at $37,000, the total cost of this system would be $190,000.

The second option is to keep the Lifeline but upgrade the hardware and software. Doing the upgrade would cost $55,000, and there would be a four-year plan software maintenance at $12,000 and hardware maintenance at $18,000, making a total of $85,000 for this option.

There is a third option: the county could network with another county.

?You could piggyback or be a remote off of [Lee or Washington counties],? said Butch Hancock with CenturyLink. He explained that networks have reoccurring costs, approximately $2,000 per month, and in a few years those costs might add up to more than purchasing a new VIPER. Hancock and Korkie did not provide a quote for the networking option, as they wanted to see if there was any interest from the county first.

Buffington said the ideal situation would be for four to five counties to be networked together. The idea was raised of having a regional meeting to discuss possible networking options.

?It?s easy for us to sit and talk about it here and for them to talk about it there,? said Buffington, saying that a regional meeting would be a good idea.

With networking, multiple dispatches could share the same equipment but they would remain autonomous.