911 makes communication purchases with recent grant

Wednesday, October 21, 2009
By Mike McCoy Statesman Staff Writer

The Stoddard County 911 Services Board of Directors approved several purchases to improve communications from cell phone and internet users at their regular meeting Oct. 15. The board approved the purchase of an Equature Recorder at a cost of $36,610, a Sager Laptop at a cost of $2,613 and mapping and addressing software at a cost of $2,990.

Stoddard County 911 Services was notified that they were one of three services in Southeast Misssouri to receive a federal grant. The county service will receive $43,000. The grant money comes from the 911 (ENHANCE 911) Act of 2004 which authorized the grant program through the Ensuring Needed Help Arrives Near Callers Employing 911. The funding comes from the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The state of Missouri received $1,694,889 to help 911 call centers to improve their ability to locate people calling from wireless and internet connected phones. The money was dispensed to 19 call centers in the state.

The board received three bids for a new recorder. They voted to accept the bid by DES Corporation for the Equature recorder which provides new generation 911 abilities. The board received two other bids on the recorder. Voice Products submitted a bid of $50,697 and Nelson Systems submitted a bid of $28,572.

Carol Moreland, 911 Services admininstrator, said the old recorder was in need of replacement. The recorder makes a recording of all calls made to 911. The new recorder also has "screen capture" capabilities. Moreland said the grant money would allow the county 911 service to upgrade to a system that would provide better service. The board did not accept the low bid because they felt the equipment was not comparable and as technologically advanced as the Equature.

The board voted to purchase a Sager laptop computer from Kevin Francis of Dexter. The computer will be used for mapping and addressing. The board also authorized the purchase of mapping and addressing software from Spatial Data Research (SDR) at a cost of $2,990 and a Garmin GPS tracking mechanism at a cost of $135. The Garmin GPS equipment allows 911 Services to pinpoint addresses for buildings and sites in the county.

Gov. Jay Nixon stated in a recent news release that the federal grant will help insure that Missouri 911 centers can improve the ability to locate emergency callers more quickly and promptly and get Missourians the assistance they deserve.

Stoddard County 911 Services has seen a dramatic increase in the number of calls made to 911 from cell phones. The federal funds are a step towards making the location of cell phone callers more accessible to 911 services.

Moreland said that the county 911 service will not directly receive the federal funds. Invoices for the new equipment and software will be sent to the granting agency for payment.

"We have to spend it to receive it," Moreland said.

In other business the board approved some amendments to the 2009 budget and approved a new budget for the 2010 year.

Comments

Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on dailystatesman.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

$2613 for a laptop? Wouldn't a Dell, IBM, or other such brand, have worked? None of them would have cost that much. Did they get bids from anyone else for a laptop, or just for the recorder?

-- Posted by commonsenseapplies on Wed, Oct 21, 2009, at 4:22 PM