911 System Improvements Important -- And Costly
Posted 02-06-1998
An area of county government that is often in the news and is one of tremendous importance
is our 911 system. It is a dynamic department that requires well-trained employees that
can react instantly, with calmness and professionalism, in sometimes life and death
situations. Because of the size and diversity of our county and an ever-changing
technological landscape, we have had to invest a sizeable amount of money into developing
our system.
While the Commonwealth has instituted the
911 surcharge to each phone line in our county, the $1.25 per line does not cover the
operational costs of our center. For our 1998 budget we have committed $2 million for
operational costs from our General Fund. As we evaluate issues such as addressing, the way
we communicate with fire, police, and ambulance personnel, and upcoming actions by the
Federal Communications Commission, it is apparent that we must make improvements. BUT IT
WILL COST MONEY!
Perhaps the greatest challenge we face is
developing an accurate Master Street Address Guide (MSAG). Our county is over 1,000 square
miles (the size of Rhode Island), much being rural areas without regular street addresses.
It is almost impossible to dispatch emergency services personnel to an RD Box number. The
more urbanized municipalities have street addresses and we have a better handle on them.
Also our county has a major problem of duplicate or near-duplicate street names. To solve
this problem we need the support of municipal governments. To give you an idea of what I'm
talking about, there are 83 Main Streets in our county. Two thousand buildings on those
Main Streets have no street number associated with their location. So imagine the
challenge of effectively dispatching to those locations.
We can greatly improve the addressing of
Westmoreland County by working together with municipal government, the U.S. Postal
Service, and utilizing the technology of a Geographic Information System (G.I.S.). We have
already invested in the Geographic Information System and it will serve not only our 911
system, but our Tax Mapping Department. It may also be utilized by our Planning Department
for land use planning. By making an investment of just under $2 million over a three-year
period, we may be able to implement the addressing project. It will allow us to resolve
this fundamental issue that lessens the effectiveness of our 911 system.
Another issue we are preparing to deal with
is a move to the 800 MHz radio frequency. Currently we communicate on low band
frequencies, but the FCC intends on dividing up those frequencies. This action will
minimize their effectiveness in the future. A number of years ago we acquired, at no cost,
several frequencies in the 800 band, but we now must show the FCC we have a plan to use
those frequencies or they will withdraw those frequencies and sell them to private firms.
When virtually all emergency communication by the Commonwealth goes to 800 MHz, we would
be forced to buy back those frequencies at a high cost. Rather than purchase the equipment
for 800 MHz, we are exploring the option of leasing. It would eliminate a large up-front
cost, and allow us to upgrade equipment as technology changes.
These major projects will allow us to keep
abreast of emerging technology to develop the most effective 911 system possible. 911 is a
program that we have come to expect to serve us without problems, and you rarely hear
about the thousands of successfully-serviced calls. To continue to improve this system we
must wisely invest public dollars to allow Westmoreland County to build a system to serve
us into the next millennium. |
