The wireless 911 emergency telephone system in Cowley County will be upgraded if a $469,315 state grant request is approved. The county commission approved the application during a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday morning.
The current 911 equipment is based on older technology. The manufacturer does not train system technicians any longer on that equipment. It is difficult to locate parts should a system failure occur as well as a tech that is qualified to work on the systems, states the application.
Such a system failure occurred at the Winfield Police Department when the office was hit by lightning on June 30, 2007 during a community festival. The 911 module trunking system was severely damaged by lightning and no longer operable. It took several days to locate replacement parts in Arkansas.
The Winfield office was able to transfer 911 calls to a makeshift backup center at the Cowley Emergency Operating Center in Winfield but it took approximately 11 days to rebuild the 911 trunking modules and cabinet.
The next generation of the 911 system is fully supported and comes with warranties that assure that the local 911 center will have backing to get parts and service in the event of any problem.
"Without this upgrade, we will be at risk of not being able to handle the wireless calls that we have worked so diligently to bring in and locate in the last five years," the application states.
Winfield and Arkansas City are of similar size and call volume, and have worked together to have the same equipment for uniformity purposes and serve as backups to each other.
"Should there be another system failure in our county, we will experience the same type of issues that Winfield just went through," states the application.
From May 2007 to May 2008, the PSAPs (public safety answer point) took 15,752 911 emergency phone calls – 55 percent of all 911 calls were from wireless callers.
A common operating picture in line with the South Central Regional 911 back-up center and better interoperability in Cowley County have been a goal for the Ark City PSAP.
The objective is to continue to upgrade and standardize equipment, upgrade current technology for future expansion of the wireless industry as well as voice over internet protocol and to create a seamless transfer of information into one integrated 911 phone system.
The Cowley County PSAPs, emergency services, and the city and county managers formed a task force to assess the need for consolidated dispatch in Cowley County. Consolidation was studied by the task force over the last two years.
"In April of this year, the task force gave a report to all Cowley County emergency services department heads, city mangers and county manager. At that meeting, everyone agreed to pursue consolidation of dispatch with the project to be completed in the next five years," the 75-page application states.
Taxes on each landline and wireless phone fund the 911 system, according to Jana McDade, assistant emergency services coordinator. Consumers pay 75-cents per month per landline and 50-cents per month per cell phone.
The local 911 system gets to keep 25 of the 50-cent tax on cell phones. McDade said approximately $186,00 is in the wireless fund and $165,000 in the landline fund.
The funds support both the Ark City and Winfield centers. The county can’t spend any of the wireless funds until the wireless system is upgraded. Landline funds can be used for monthly expenses.
The grant funds are generated from the 25-cent-monthly fee collected from each wireless service account in Kansas and one percent from the retail price of any prepaid wireless service sold in the state.
Counties with population of less than 75,000 or any city located within such a county are eligible for E911 state grant funds.
