Replacement emergency phone system to embrace new forms of communication starting next year

Oct. 24--DINWIDDIE -- The county's emergency phone system will soon step into the next generation of communication.

Beginning next year, residents will be able to contact emergency services through text, video and photos.

Dinwiddie Communication Manager Denice Marrs said the county's decade-old phone system is not capable of receiving such messages. She expects that the new system will go live by January or February 2014.

The new system will place Dinwiddie at the edge of a movement toward systems that can handle such communication, according to Marrs.

"It's amazing how fast this technology moves," Dennis Hale, division chief of Fire and EMS, said.

At their Oct. 15 meeting, the Board of Supervisors unanimously authorized County Administrator Kevin Massengill to enter into a contract not to exceed $271,091 to purchase the new telephone system.

Counties are not currently required to have systems that support text messaging, video or photos, but Marrs expects the mandates will come.

"Eventually, all jurisdictions should go to it. I don't know how long it will take," Marrs said.

The change could be revolutionary for the hearing disabled and crime victims.

"In a domestic violence situation, sometimes your victims don't want to be heard making a call ... Also our hearing-disabled people will be able to text 911," Marrs said.

Video will assist emergency personnel in showing a hearing-disabled person what action to take in a particular emergency situation, Marrs said.

Wireless carriers that serve the county will have to adjust their equipment to accommodate the capabilities of the new phone system.

"Once we get this, it is going to be a team effort. Any wireless vendors that we have in the county, they would have to be able to send the calls out to 911," Marrs said. "They are on board. As far as I know, they are one of our biggest supporters of this."

Dispatchers would respond to incoming text messages through text. Marrs said that "hot keys," or template responses that can be sent with a touch of the keyboard, would reduce time spent responding by dispatchers.

One challenge that the new system will pose, Marrs said, is adapting dispatchers to the acronyms people use in text messages.

The bulk of the system's costs will be covered through grants and the normal annual operating budget of the Emergency Communications Center.

In addition to the phone system itself, the contract includes installation, training and a five-year agreement for system maintenance, monitoring and support.

The first year of the contract is expected to cost $181,091.

A $150,000 grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia E-911 Services Board will pay for the majority of that first-year cost, while about $31,000 will be required from the county. Marrs said the state has set aside millions to help counties pay for the new generation technology.

The Emergency Communications Center budget will handle the remaining four years of the contract by annually providing $22,500 for maintenance and support. Hale said the maintenance and support fee is comparable to the current phone maintenance contract.

A total of $230,000 has been set aside in the county's capital improvement plan for the project, which includes the $150,000 in grant money and $80,000 in county funding. Because the county will only be using about $31,000 of that allocated $80,000, supervisors approved using some of the savings to upgrade the entrances at the Old Hickory Fire Department. The remaining savings will be returned to the capital improvements fund.

The capital improvement plan included the project for a number of years, Marrs said. But, a lack of legislation and standards surrounding the issue continually kicked it down the road.

When Motorola informed the county in 2011 that a component of the current phone system would no longer be supported, it became more sensible to replace the phone system altogether, Marrs said.

Because the new system does not rely on actual hardware, the county will not have to worry about aging technology going out of commission.

The county will send out notices when the new system is operational.

- Vanessa Remmers may be reached at 804-722-5155 or vremmers@progress-index.com.

Copyright 2013 - The Progress-Index, Petersburg, Va.