COLUMBIANA CO. E911 to begin service in July

Some panel members want to prevent tapes of calls from being made public.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Enactment of enhanced 911 telephone service in Columbiana County has been moved back to July.
Officials had earlier said the system should be ready by the second quarter of 2006.
Gary Williams, the county commissioner who is overseeing the project, said it will likely take until early July to complete all the work.
The plan is being reviewed for approval by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
The system, when enacted, should route regular and cellular calls to one of five answering sites in the county. The sites should automatically show the location of the call from either regular or cellular phones.
The county sheriff's office and East Liverpool dispatching centers are ready. East Palestine is almost complete, and Salem needs equipment. Columbiana's is still being painted after remodeling.
Robert K. Emmons, the county's E911 director, said that 33 pallets of material had been delivered to the county jail for storage, pending installation.
Verizon, which is providing the equipment for the system, will be wiring the answering points through early May.
Long process
Emmons said phone companies are providing information on addresses and subdivision boundaries that will determine which calls go to each answering point. Those will be given to subdivisions for review, and, if needed, be changed.
"That's a long, drawn-out process in March and April," Emmons said.
The committee is debating having a second cable from SBC, the local telephone line provider, installed at the county's Emergency Management Agency.
The EMA is moving into a new building in Lisbon that will house backup. Emmons said that if the present line, which is above ground at one point near the EMA, is broken, the entire system would be knocked out. The cost of the second line would be about $3,000.
An unknown cost will be the hiring of a company to map the county using a global positioning system. The information will show dispatchers the location of calls from cell phones. The company will have to go throughout the county and repeatedly send signals on each street to record their location.
Calls to one answering point may be transferred to another. Each site will record only their portion of the call. Complete versions of each call will be available only at the EMA.
Release of tapes to public
Several law enforcement officers on the committee were concerned about releasing copies of the full calls to the public and will discuss the issue in a committee meeting.
Such tapes are generally considered public records under Ohio law.
Sheriff David Smith, a committee member, told the officers that the tapes can't be withheld.
Capt. Norm Curtis of the East Liverpool Police Department said that investigatory material doesn't have to be released. He said that five minutes after a serious crime, police begin to get calls naming suspects. Curtis added that families shouldn't listen to tragic calls involving a loved one.
The law enforcement officers said they get more public records requests from lawyers than from the press.
wilkinson@vindy.com