WALTHALL - Webster County supervisors, meeting Monday, took recommendations for Enhanced 911 emergency service personnel under advisement.
Eugene Doss, county Emergency Management Agency director, presented a list of recommended names for 911 director and dispatchers from the 911 Advisory Committee. Last month, supervisors authorized the committee to screen applications for the positions, which includes six full- and part-time dispatchers.
Doss reported that about 60 applications were received for the positions, including approximately four or five specifically for director. The committee set these minimum qualifications for an applicant to be considered: having a high school education, being at least 21, residing in Webster County and having some experience. Doss said every application was reviewed and thorough background checks were conducted.
In a follow-up interview, he said, "Dispatching emergency situations is not for everybody" because of the pressures involved. He also said whoever is hired as director will have much responsibility.
The recommendation for director was made after interviews with two finalists, who were graded on a point system. The Board of Supervisors took all of the recommendations under advisement.
Working Toward
911 Deployment
Discussions about the 911 system dominated the discussion Monday morning. In addition to Doss, those present for this discussion were Jim McCreary with Precisions Communications of Amory, which was awarded the contract to provide 911 equipment; Dr. David Bandi and Toby Sanford with the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District's GIS and Remote Sensing Program, which contracted with the county to perform 911 addressing; and Suzanne Phillips with AT&T.
According to the discussion, McCreary has installed and tested the 911 radio equipment at the Emergency Operations Center in the Science Building Annex on The Wood Institute campus in Mathiston. McCreary also said the backup 911 system is close to being in place at the sheriff's office. He indicated that he is only awaiting the installation of at least three telephone trunk lines that will dedicated solely for E911 service, and the E911 mapping system database.
Sanford said he is about 40 percent complete in linking 911 addresses with the 4,000 phone numbers in the county and Phillips said AT&T has started building its database of numbers and addresses from the information he has provided so far. She said the phone company's policy is not to provide that database for use with the 911 system until it is virtually complete to ensure that all information is correct.
However, Sanford said the process of matching phone numbers and address is time-consuming because of having to use phone company printouts. Phillips agreed to see if phone number information could be provided to the PDD in electronic form to speed the process up.
Officials said that a basic 911 system could be operable once AT&T installs the trunk lines to the EOC . However, this system, known as ANI for Automatic Number Identification, will only display phone numbers on the PSAP computer consoles at the time a 911 call is answered. The complete system, referred to as ALI for Automatic Location Identification, will generate addresses/location maps and related call data.
At the board's direction, Phillips agreed to go ahead and order the trunk lines so that the basic 911 system with ANI features can be deployed as soon as possible, with the ALI features to be added when they become available. Officials said it will take about 45 days for the trunk lines to be installed.
Other Business
Also Monday, Johnny Carter, wildlife specialist with the USDA Wildlife Services office in Starkville, met briefly with the board. Supervisors asked him to meet with them at their third-Monday meetings to see if they had any problem areas from beaver damage to report.
Carter said he was going to meet with a District 4 resident that day who, according to the discussion, had suffered flashflood damage on her property last week to explain the beaver control program to her.
In other business, supervisors voted to:
disburse fire insurance rebate funds equally among the nine fire departments in the county.
accept a donated 1975 Mack fire truck from Choctaw County for the Bellefontaine Volunteer Fire Department in exchange for a quantity of 2 1/2-inch fire hose.
appoint Todd Shettles, director of North Mississippi Medical Center-Eupora's Ambulance Service, to the North Mississippi EMS Authority to fill the vacancy created by the death of Larry Box, and to renew its training contract with the agency.
allow Faye Raines, veterans service officer, to attend a continuing education class in Jackson next month.
reimburse Circuit Clerk Deborah Hood Neal for expenses in attending a convention.
sign an applications and software agreement with Data Systems Inc. for $1,115 a month.
The board recessed until 8 a.m. Sept. 28.
Post a Comment