The Greene County E 9-1-1 service board will hold its annual meeting Tuesday, Jan. 12, at 9 am at the Greene County LEC, 204 S. Chestnut, Jefferson.
The 9-1-1 board is responsible for providing the equipment at the LEC to make the 9-1-1 system work in the county, as well as paying the fees necessary to have all 9-1-1 calls in the county routed to the LEC, explained Greene County emergency management coordinator Dennis Morlan. Funding comes from a $1 surcharge on land line phone subscribers pay on their monthly phone bill, and a portion of the 9-1-1 surcharge on cellular phone bills.
The 9-1-1 board does not operate the system; that is the responsibility of the Greene County sheriff’s office.
On the agenda for the annual meeting are a review of 2015 projects including an IP 9-1-1 phone system, IP administrative phone system, a door/security project, and installation of a heat pump in the communications room; new items including a request to allow certain recurring bills to be paid by ACH, installation of a heat pump in the equipment room and IAM responding; a treasurer’s report; setting a public hearing date for the FY 2016-17 budget; and the biannual election of officers.
The E-9-1-1 service board was established in the early 1990s by the Iowa legislature to establish a 9-1-1 system so all 9-1-1 calls in the county would be routed to the Greene County LEC with computerized information regarding the location the call came from, plus the names of the law enforcement agency, fire department and EMS agency that provides service to that location. An early task of the E 9-1-1 Service board was creating the current system of rural addresses.
Morlan is the sole remaining member of the initial E-9-1-1 service board. He has served as board chair since the early 1990s. Doug Hawn has donated thousands of hours to the board including establishing and maintaining the rural addressing system, maintaining the computer data base, and providing technical service for the operation of the complex system.
The interested public is encouraged to attend the Jan. 12 meeting.
