Bartholomew County has been awarded a federal grant to help offset the cost of upgrading its aging 911 phone system.
The Bartholomew County 911 Emergency Operations Center was awarded $742,040, including $691,200 to upgrade the county’s 911 phone system and $50,840 to upgrade the county’s phone and radio recording system, said Catherine Seat, spokeswoman for the Office of the Indiana Treasurer of State, which is administering Indiana’s portion of the federal grant money.
The grant, called the 911 Grant Program, is funded by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and seeks to help local 911 call centers migrate to digital emergency networks, according to grant program’s website.
Under the terms of the grant, federal funds will cover 60% of the costs of upgrading Bartholomew County’s 911 phone system, or approximately $445,000, while the county and city will divide up the remaining 40% of the costs, or approximately $296,800, said Todd Noblitt, Bartholomew County emergency operations director.
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“We’ve been preparing for about that last 18 months that we’re going to have to purchase a new enhanced 911 phone system,” Noblitt said. “That grant money will go towards that. The current system is at end of life.”
Currently, Bartholomew County uses the Patriot Sentinel phone system, an analog phone system, Noblitt said.
The new system will be the Vesta 9-1-1, a digital phone system that is expected to better pinpoint the location of callers who dial 911 and enable the system to be compatible with several next-generation features, including real-time video feeds from law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders.
The county’s phone and radio recording system also will be upgraded to ensure it is compatible with the new phone system.
Noblitt said he expects the phone and recording systems to be ready by the first or second quarter of 2020.
“It’s definitely going to enhance public safety for the citizens of our community, and that’s the goal of everyone who works in public safety,” Noblitt said.
The 911 Grant Program has disbursed a combined $109.2 million in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Native American tribal organizations, according to the grant program’s website.
Dozens of public safety answering points, or PSAPs, across the state submitted grant proposals for Indiana’s allotment of the federal money, Seat said.
A total of 29 counties were awarded a combined $2.8 million in federal grant funding. Noblitt said the county applied for the grant in late 2018.
“We’re really fortunate,” Noblitt said. “Our system is at end of life. It’s going to have to be replaced. This grant came in at the exact same time that we were going to have to replace this system. This is going to reduce the burden on the taxpayer to purchase this system.”
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Visit ntia.doc.gov/category/next-generation-911 for more information about the 911 Grant Program.
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