A study is underway on the current configuration of the Marion County 911 emergency dispatch centers.
County 911 Coordinator Stacey Arenas says a company called Mission Critical is completing the study.
She notes after 30 years in the current set-up of answering centers at the Salem and Centralia Police Stations and a secondary answering point at the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, the 911 Board felt it was time for a fresh look from an outside group.
One of the current issues is the Marion County Sheriff’s Department not meeting the state standards to be a secondary answering center. She says to meet standards equipment upgrades as well as additional staff training would be required of telecommunications officers at the sheriff’s department. Arenas says at the present time no 911 money has been expended at the sheriff’s department because it is not part of the main system.
The study will also look at if the 911 system would be better served by a single answering center instead of centers at the Salem and Centralia Police Departments.
Centralia Police Lieutenant Steve Whritenour also feels the study needs to take into consideration having qualified personnel available to run the three centers due to difficulties in finding and then keeping employees.
Arenas says the study will take five to six months to complete and will include two full days of multiple meetings to gain input from police and fire agencies. Data from the 911 answering points will also be studied by Mission Critical.
The study is expected to be completed in September or October.
Arenas notes the 911 Emergency Phone Board is under no obligation to implement any of the report’s recommendations.
