Grant gives 9-1-1 first upgrade in 14 years! ........................
Date Posted:8/15/06
Dispatcher Kay Finuff, who has been a dispatcher for the past five years, is excited about the new equipment. It will make her life at work a lot easier.

Sheriff Morris Young announced last week that the Florida Office of E-911 in the Department of Emergency Management has awarded the county a $458,000 grant to improve communications. There has not been an upgrade in 14 years and the system is outdated, according to Young. "When we have finished, it will be like going from Mayberry to Star Trek," said Robert Pough of 911 Direct, the company installing the system. The dispatchers will be moving to new offices as well. "When the library moves out, we will use that space for dispatchers and the Emergency Management Office," Young said. The Emergency Management Office is currently on the first floor. The Supervisor of Elections Office will occupy that floor. Doug Brown, supervisor of dispatching office housed at the county jail said the current office space leaves a lot to be desired. There is no outside ventilation and the antiquated air conditioning unit is often so noisy that dispatchers have to turn it off so they can hear calls clearly. "It gets hot in here and they suffer at lot. This is a high stress job," Brown said.

Dispatchers handle all of the calls from a 30-foot by 30-foot room crammed with computers, desks, consoles and other equipment. Under the floor are approximately 30 miles of wire. Some sections of the floor have no coverings. The homemade consoles hold up outdated computers. "They do a very good job with the equipment they have. They just patch it up and keep going. That's why I was so happy to get this grant. It will make their jobs a lot less stressful," Young said. The new equipment will have a state of the art tracking system. When a call comes in, a light will show exactly where the call is coming from. "This will definitely help with our calls on the interstate," Young said. The tracking will be just as beneficial for local residents. "You get a person calling 911 and their loved one is lying there in a pool of blood, they may be so upset, they probably will forget their own address," he said. With the new system, while the dispatcher is on the telephone trying to keep the caller calm and get as much information as possible, emergency help could already be on the way. The system that will be used is designed for public safety only.

The current system has three stations; the new center will have five stations for dispatchers and one for a supervisor. This is some of what the county will get from the new system: * New 911 system designed for Gadsden County from the ground up. Everything is new. *A map system dedicated to public safety viewer. The map will provide automatic display and management of calls, incidents, responses, and resources. The system will provide enhanced support of wireless E911 calls. *A computer aided system that provides complete resources and incident management for single and multi-agencies. * Two multi-channel recorders for Havana Police Department and Chattahoochee Police Department for the purpose of recording radio and telephone and will be compatible with the existing system at the main communication center. * Two backup for 911 calls. * A video conferencing center to allow the sheriff's office to provide inmate first appearance via video by way of county jail, judge's chamber and Public Defender's office. * Priority dispatch which will assist dispatchers to quickly determine the severity of an incident by using a universal coding system. Brown guessed the new system will be operational by the end of the year.