911 Modifications Continue

Effingham County 911 Board members Tuesday got word that a link has been identified that will allow telecommunicators to keep track of emergency services personnel on call and their locations.

Board member Joe Holomy said a link will be established between the County PSAP location and the north water tower site. The link will connect 911 with the Illinois State Police headquarters in Collinsville that has access to the statewide STARCOM network. Holomy said an earlier proposed link with IDOT won't work as IDOT is on the system on a regular basis.

David Landers of Motorola said there won't be additional expense since the link involves an existing T1 line. Holomy said there won't be any impact on the bottom line since 911 earlier agreed to assume maintenance costs on the system.

Sheriff's Deputy Darin Deters, who helps oversee communications for the sheriff's office, asked that some of the existing communications equipment be retained since it is used to operate the county jail such as the security doors.

Meanwhile, the 911 Board approved a $669,000 payment to Motorola for new consoles for the dispatching points. The payment covers 60% of the cost and follows an initial 25% payment when the equipment was puchased. Board members heard that all of the inventory for the installation is in-house.

Now that the link from the County Building to the water tower is approved, work to install the consoles can proceed. Holomy said the work will start at the City PSAP and when finished will conclude at the County PSAP.

There was some discussion about the startup of Next Generation technology being used by 911 systems in Illinois. System Administrator Jodi Moomaw said two deep southern Illinois counties and two northern Illinois municipalities are received text messages as 911 notifications, but no other communication besides phone calls are being received by 911 in the state.