Board discusses data base info, insurance

The Stoddard County 911 Services Board instructed Administrator Carol Moreland to check with their attorney about revisions in their data base policy to allow the city of Dexter to compile a telephone list for an emergency phone communication program at their meeting Tuesday morning. The city has purchased the program from Group Cast of St. Louis. Also at their meeting, the board voted to allow Moreland "flexible" office hours and to pay an individual health insurance premium along with the deductible for Moreland.

Dexter Fire Chief Al Banken addressed the board as a representative of the city. He told the board the city has purchased an emergency phone service that would allow the city to contact residents individually by phone in the event of an emergency. Banken said the system would be used by all city departments to inform citizens of storm warnings, evacuations for train derailments or other emergencies, street closings, fire hydrant testing, ice and snow road conditions and other matters that may be of importance to residents.

Banken said the city had the option of using "canned for live" messages and these messages could be targeted to only those areas that are effected.

He told the board that one area that will be affecting his department is hydrant testing. He said his department invariably gets calls complaining about the turbidity in the water causing discolored laundry. The new system would allow the city to contact the affected area just prior to the testing so that residents would be aware of it.

Board member William Pogue expressed his concern about the types of calls that could be made.

"It will come back to us if frivolous, non-emergency calls are made," Pogue stated.

He also expressed his concern about giving the data base to the city. County 911 Services had a contract with AT&T for the data base. The Dexter program would access only the names, addresses and phone numbers of city residents from this data base for their emergency phone service.

Pogue said the 911 Service policy would have to be changed in order to allow Dexter to access the list.

"We want the public to know we are keeping our confidentiality," Moreland stressed, "We have never released this information before."

Board member Gary Kitchen said the board needed to clarify that the data base could only be used by a municipality for this purpose.

Chairman Paul Haubold asked if any action was needed by the board. It was pointed out that release of the data base was a policy issue, and not in the by-laws of 911 Services.

Vice Chairman Chuck Edwards said he was for the Dexter program and believed it would be a beneficial service to the residents, even though he doesn't live in Dexter. He did say he wanted to make sure "we dot our I's and cross our T's."

AT&T will only release this information for the sole purpose of emergency automated notification systems, Moreland said.

"We can do this now, but I don't want to," Hogue stated, "I think we should wait and get a policy restricting who we give it to."

It was decided to have the board attorney review the policy for revisions and that the Policy Committee review these revisions prior to their October meeting.

Kitchen, chairman of the Insurance Committee, reported to the board that since 911 services has only one employee (Moreland), they did not qualify for a group health insurance rate. He said the deductible was raised which kept the premium from being an increase. The health insurance is though Anthem Blue Cross and the monthly premium is $594.99.

Kitchen made a motion to approve keeping the present company for health insurance and it was seconded by Dee Griffin. It passed by a 6-0 vote.

Kitchen then recommended that they pay the $500 deductible for Moreland.

"She is doing her work and the work that Rebecca (former employee Rebecca Lovelady) did," Kitchen said.

He said Moreland was having phone calls to the service forwarded to her cell phone when she was unable to be in the office. He noted that the board had decided not to hire another employee, so Moreland was doing the work of two people.

Griffin spoke up that Moreland has been under a lot of stress operating the office by herself, and offered, "I'm for it."

Kitchen made the motion and it was seconded by Pogue. It passed by a 6-0 vote.

Moreland then asked the board to consider giving her more flexibility in office hours. She said that even though they had decided to close the office for two hours each morning, this did not allow her enough time to do all the things that required her to be out of the office.

She said having someone come in to keep the office open was not a viable option She said they were not involved enough to answer specific questions and she did not want someone "not knowing." the answer. She said it was better to have the office number rolled over to her cell phone so she could answer any questions.

"I need to know that I can close the door when I need to," Moreland told the board.

"A public office should not be closed, but we should have the funds to have two people on, to keep it open," Edwards stated.

Kitchen said that rarely do they have people walk in with address changes, they normally call in the information. He said Moreland could handle this business through the rollover to her cell phone.

"She is an administrator, not an employee," Kitchen said.

Kitchen made the motion to allow the administrator the latitude of when the office is open and have the office number forwarded to her cell phone during business hours when she is not there. It was seconded by William Nelson and approved by a 6--0 vote.

It was reported that 911 services received 716 calls for the month of August. Of that number, 278 were for EMS, 168 for law enforcement, 6 for fires, 23 for tests and 75 for miscellaneous. Of the total number, 226 were from cell phones which it was pointed out was 55.5 percent of the total calls. Cell phone users do not pay for 911 services.