Anderson County is considering moving its 911 operations center after lightning hit two towers at the center Monday, knocking out about 70 percent of the equipment, including the phone lines, radios, and the facility's generator.
Captain Matthew Littleton with Anderson County Emergency Services says the repairs could cost about $3 million. Littleton says the cost to move the dispatch center to the county's emergency operations center near Anderson Regional Airport would be minimal. Littleton did not have an estimate on the cost of the move, which would include making work spaces larger and knocking a wall out to make room for 9-1-1 operators.
Members of Anderson County's Emergency Services Division are in Columbia Thursday to determine what state grant money is available to help with moving the dispatch center. Littleton says insurance should cover most, if not all, of the repairs and replacement of equipment.
A lightning strike Monday was the county's third strike at the 9-1-1 operations center on South Towers Street in downtown Anderson. Monday’s hit was by far the worst. Two towers were struck, knocking out the phone system, radios, and the generator.
9-1-1 was down for about 4 minutes Monday. Now, there shouldn't be any problems getting through to 9-1-1.
The current dilemna is deciding whether they go back to the place where lightning struck or move the 9-1-1 center to the back-up location near the airport.
Captain Matthew Littleton with Anderson County Emergency Services says, "At some point, you have to make a decision is this system economically repairable and more importantly how reliable is this system going to be once I put it back in service?"
Capt. Littleton says, "It's (the location near the airport) is built for a dispatch center, so very minor modifications would have to be made." Capt. Littleton says an upgrade in equipment will help them plan for the future. He says, "What next generation 911 will do is you'll be able to text message 911.”
County officials say response times could also be faster with newer equipment, and the facility near the airport would give them some room to grow in the future.
A decision about whether to move the 9-1-1 center should be made in the next few weeks.
Source: http://www2.wspa.com/news/2011/jul/07/anderson-county-considering-moving-911-center-afte-ar-2079774/
No comments:
Post a Comment