County to replace outdated E911 system

County to replace outdated E911 system

Director: ‘ We are going to have to do it whether we like it or not’

news@theeveningtimes.com

The Crittenden County E911 Center will go ahead and get bids on a cost to replace its aging communications system.

E911 Director Ronnie Sturch told the Quorum Court that the system is more than 20 years old and so outdated that is putting people’s lives at risk.

“Some of our servers that we use are Windows 97,” Sturch said. “I would venture to ask if any of you are operating a computer that is 20 years old? Yet we are operating life saving equipment.”

Sturch said he had three companies come in and evaluate the current system. All three agreed that they need a whole new system to operate effectively.

He added that the manufacturer doesn’t even make parts to fix the current system any more.

“Our system has been fixed and repaired. Fixed and repaired,” Sturch said.

“But there is nothing they can do with it if it goes down. So we need to get some quotes (for a new system) and see where we are at.”

Sturch said replacing the system will cost the county about $250,000 to $300,000.

“It’s an expensive proposition,” Sturch said.” But it is one of those things that we are going to have to do it whether we like it or not.”

Sturch said the county would get a better price if they replace the system all at once, but they could phase it in over time if they don’t have the money to buy a whole new system.

“There are a lot of options including phasing it in if we want to,” Sturch said.

“It is cheaper to do it at once because there are some discounts that are available. But you could phase it in over time.”

The E911 Center is included in the jail fund which has its own dedicated source of revenue.

The state also gives the county turnback money to operate E911, but Sturch said it only covers about 30 percent of the actual operating costs. Further complicating matters is the fact that there are fewer and fewer landlines as more residents are using cellular phones as their primary phone. The county gets $1.40 per land line but only 69 cents from cell phone providers.

Sturch said 94.2 percent of all calls handled by the E911 Center came from cell phones.

“Nobody has landlines any more,” Sturch said. “But the problem is the money you pay on your cell phone bill is less than half of what a landline gets charged. So when the landlines started decreasing and cell phone use began increasing, there is less money coming in.

So we’re still falling way short on our E911 funding every year.”

The Quorum Court gave Sturch permission to put specifications together to send out for bids to replace the system and report back with his findings.

“I’m going to go ahead and move forward with getting some numbers together so we can know what the cost will be,” Sturch said.

By Mark Randall