911 board approves equipment upgrades; grants to pay portion

By Anna C. Irwin
of The Daily Times Staff


Equipment upgrades at the Blount County Communications Center were approved Thursday in a called meeting of the 911 Board of Directors.

Board members accepted a recommendation from Jeff Caylor, the center's director, and William Brewer, chairman of the board, to purchase a Power 9-1-1 phone system, Positron Power Map, Positron's Automatic Vehicle Locator system, and VIPER 9-1-1 Controller at a total cost of just over $239,000.

The equipment upgrades will be funded with $98,500 left in grant money already available for the purchases, leaving the actual local cost at $140,500. Caylor told board members an estimated $150,000 in excess wireless revenues from a large reserve built up by the state is expected to be released to the Blount County Communications District in the next few days. That sum would be in addition to regular receipts from wireless revenues.

The grant and the "bonus" wireless revenue payment will more than cover the cost of the equipment being purchased from Positron.

Brewer said the equipment is considered "next generation" in the communications industry and expected to meet new state and national standards to be determined in the next few years. If the new purchases do not meet those standards not yet established, the contract with Positron puts a cap on the cost to update software and hardware to meet the standards.

The Power 9-1-1 phone system will replace the current phone system with computerized phone workstations which would integrate with the new mapping system.

The Positron Power Map is in a format needed to accommodate local mapping and locator needs as well as provide information soon to be required by the state for a Tennessee-wide map system.

The Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) system will replace the system currently being used. It will provide remote access to the system for two municipal police departments and the sheriff's office. It will allow monitoring of vehicle location to improve officer safety as will as provide records of patrol and other activity.

The final piece of equipment will solve the problem of dispatchers receiving incorrect location information from VoIP calls, calls through an Internet service provider rather than traditional telephone service. The VIPER 9-1-1 controller is designed to overcome the problem presented by Internet telephone service.

Caylor said sometimes the current controller provides dispatchers with the location from which a 911 call is being made. However, he said the system sometimes "may give the address of the service provider instead of the caller."

The purchase contract with Positron was to be executed as soon as possible with 30 percent of the cost to be paid then, another 30 percent when equipment the equipment is installed, and 30 percent more when training is done. The last 10 percent will be due when the system is fully operational and accepted for use.