Enhanced 911 service set to begin Sept. 11

By D.A. Wilkinson

The second part of the county’s program hasn’t been completed.

LISBON — Five years after voters approved a measure to enact enhanced 911 phone service in Columbiana, part of the system is set to start Sept. 11.

The start date was picked to salute emergency workers, including those who died in terrorist attacks on the United States on that date in 2001.

Columbiana will become the 85th out of the state’s 88 counties to have countywide 911 service, said Robert Emmons, the county’s 911 director who has been overseeing the project.

The U.S. Census has estimated the county has about 110,542 residents.

The remaining three counties without the service — Monroe, Meigs and Noble counties — are much smaller, Emmons said.

Officials at Columbiana County’s Technical Advisory Committee on Tuesday said the start may be a pre-arranged call into the county commissioner’s office.

Emmons said the time of the call won’t be announced. He said if the time is publicized, many people will make a 911 call afterward to see if the system is working. An influx of calls could clog the system.

Calls will be routed to one of five primary answering locations: the county sheriff’s office and the police departments in Salem, Columbiana, East Palestine and East Liverpool.

The program is an enhanced 911 system that will show dispatchers a name and the location from where a call is made.

The time taken in creating the system stems from the county’s crafting the system from scratch. The committee, composed mostly of safety officials, had to decide on everything from computerized mapping programs to cooling systems at the five locations to floor mats for dispatchers’ chairs.

The system is not complete, however.

The plans call for the system to show dispatchers the location anywhere a distress call was made in the county by a cell phone.

Since the project began, the number of land-line phones has dropped from 47,000 to about 34,000.

Emmons said he was not sure of the number of cell phones being used in the county.

Smaller cell phone companies are sending the county checks for usage but not listing the number of customers.

The committee decided to have 10,000 brochures printed to explain the new system, but didn’t say how they would be circulated.

The meeting was the last one for the technical advisory committee. When the system begins, it will be run by the Columbiana County Emergency Services Committee, which will consist of at least 14 people, including elected and safety officials.

Commissioner Dan Bing, who oversaw the project, said many of the advisory committee members will likely be involved with the new committee, which will meet for the first time at 1 p.m. Sept. 23.

wilkinson@vindy.com