A new $1.2 million 911 phone system for the Bartholomew County Emergency Operations Center should be ready either the last week of October or the first week of November.
Emergency Operations Director Todd Noblitt said the “Next Gen” model is capable of not only pinpointing where an interrupted emergency call was made, but also what floor of a building the caller was on. In addition to the radio, the center is also investing $50,000 into a new recording system.
While the state-of-the-art system is still being built, Noblitt said new networking and data-basing equipment has already been installed at the center, located at 131 S. Cherry St. After the phone system itself arrives and is operational, dispatcher training will likely begin the third week of October, he said.
The purchase of the new phone system was needed because technical support and replacement parts for the current equipment, which was installed in 2009, are no longer available, the center director said.
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Although the Bartholomew County Council appropriated $445,224 upfront Tuesday to replace the 11-year-old 911 phone system, that money will be reimbursed by a federal grant announced earlier this year. In addition, Noblitt and his staff have been very conservative with their money over the past four years, he said.
The emergency operations center has been prioritizing projects and limiting spending, Noblitt said. The county council has also allowed the 911 facility to transfer unspent funds at the end of each year from their salaries and communications fund into an emergency phone system account. If transfers had not been approved, unspent money would have reverted back to general funds accounts, Noblitt said.
Another step was the 2018 hiring of consultant Barry Ritter, who had served as executive director of the Indiana Statewide 911 Board until his 2017 retirement. Ritter was able to utilize his contacts to acquire the new 911 emergency phone system for 20% less than what the old system cost over a decade ago, Noblitt said.
In addition, the Indiana Statewide 911 board of directors agreed to pick up about $400,000 in database and networking fees over the next eight years, Noblitt said.
