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Commissioner calls 911 criticism 'theatrical' Members of the Clarke County E-911 board responded Monday morning to a critical commentary by Ivey Griffin, owner of WJDB-FM radio regarding the system. Commissioner Paul Bradford described Griffin's commentary as "theatrical….He doesn't out-and-out lie, but he doesn't tell the truth either," the commissioner said. "I will take what we have today any day over what we had 16-years-ago," Commissioner Rhondel Rhone said. "It's far more advanced. You can get people the service that they need much faster." "He (Griffin) is just wanting assurance that we are being accountable," said Commissioner Patricia DuBose. One of Griffin's criticisms concerned an accident on the Highway 43 bypass near Sales Ford where an E-911 dispatcher supposedly had to ask for address information. When the new CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system is fully implemented, it will give dispatchers a 50-meter radius from where the cell phone emergency call was made, said E-911 Coordinator Becky Neugent. "It will not pinpoint it," she said, "but it will give you 50 meters." Commissioner Bradford asked if E-911 operators would get hung up or lose response time while trying to obtain address info. "No," Nuegent said, "but, they do need to find out where exactly the wreck is and make sure it is the same wreck. We have so many people calling in wrecks. Sometimes we've had three wrecks at the same exact time. "…There are a series of questions you need to know," she said. "I need to ask number one, is the road blocked? (Number two), are there any injuries? I need to know if there are any injuries so I know if I need to call Life Flight (helicopter service) or I need to call an ambulance - and which ambulance." E-911 also needs to get the cell phone number, she said, so if a call is dropped, they can call the person back. Commissioner Rhondel Rhone said often emergency callers, particularly out-oftowners, will not know where they are calling from. Neugent said many people living in the county can't give exact directions. Commissioner Joe Hunt was concerned that with the $102,000 being spent on the CAD system that the most accurate information be available. Neugent said the change to cell phones including GPS tracking will also aid the efforts of first responders. The E-911 Board recently raised the monthly phone tariff to fund the system to $2 across the board for residential and business phone lines. That hike was part of Griffin's beef as was the overall budget. Neugent reported that salary and benefits for the E-911 staff totals approximately $335,000 annually in a total budget of $486,000. Approximately $50,000 "one time" money of that grand total for fiscal 2007 paid was for the new CAD program, she said. Maintenance on the equipment is $20,000-a-year, and phone bills add up to over $50,000-ayear. In other action from Monday's meeting, Commissioner DuBose asked Neugent how county residents could be encouraged to post their street numbers on their residences to aid first responders. One problem is in congested areas, Neugent said, where there are many mailboxes together in one row. All the boxes have the correct numbers, but the houses are not correctly marked, she said. "This is in their interest," DuBose said. "We're not attempting to boss them." Neugent said there were so many residences without numbers she was not sure of the correct action to take. She said she would check Attorney General opinions "and see if there is already an opinion out there that makes it mandatory." Commissioner Hunt said the lack of address numbers had also been an issue with people receiving assistance from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). "It caused major problems," he said. Neugent reported that the Clarke County Sheriff's Department answered 886 E- 911 calls for a portion of June and responded to 213 cases. The agency ran 120 driver's license numbers and 93 tag numbers. These were the only numbers run since E-911 began using the CAD System.
In addition, the Jackson Police Department answered 218 E- 911 calls, and the Thomasville Police Department answered 233 E-911 calls.
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