A trio of grants recently approved for the local Clinton County Emergency Services, primarily 911 Dispatch Center and Mapping and Addressing office, will enhance and quicken the local emergency service’s ability to pinpoint and more quickly respond to emergency calls as well as upgrade new address changes more quickly.

Director of Emergency Services, Lonnie Scott, said on Monday that the three grants, totaling approximately $153,000, were awarded in calendar years 2013 and 2014, and some equipment has already been installed, while other equipment is currently in the process of being put in, and the final phase of the new equipment should be in place and ready to install by the end of the month.

The grants were funded through the Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) Emergency Telecommunications Board, whose duty is to implement wireless emergency 911 service throughout Kentucky in accordance with state and federal legislation and regulations.

The new enhanced wireless computer and equipment system will replace most older equipment that has been in place since 2007.

Scott said the first item that has already been installed, with the grant totaling a little over $19,000, is the data recorder system that records all incoming and outgoing transmissions from the E-911 dispatch center.

The second, most expensive equipment paid for with a $70,000 CMRS grant is an enhanced 911 call tracking which pinpoints phone numbers, addresses and exact locations (including those from cell phones) where the call is coming from to help emergency personnel in getting to the right scene more quickly.

The final equipment, which was funded at $64,590, is the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), which is a comprehensive dispatching tool that has options for use by both dispatchers and supervisory personnel to give optimum dispatch performance. The dispatcher can easily distinguish the status of active calls, while recording various status times, radio communications history, and historical calls.

The CAD system is expected to be installed in a couple of weeks.

911 Mapping and Addressing Coordinator Andy Davis said the new enhanced wireless equipment will also make county mapping and addressing much quicker and this, too, could be a life saver when dispatching emergency personnel to a correct location.

Davis explained that with the old power map system, local addressing had to go through AT&T to get their permission to update, and would require them to send a technician to make the changes, which in some cases may take up to two weeks to add or change an address.

With the new “Orion Vela” system, a new address can be put into the system automatically and can be upgraded daily if necessary which is the “good side” of the new system.

Scott also noted that dispatchers would have more accurate and faster information, especially in regards to cell phone calls and pinpointing the exact location of where the phone is when the call is made to the dispatch center as the new system can pull in multiple data that can be displayed to the dispatchers on duty.

Also, in the past, dispatchers who received a ‘hang-up’ call would have to manually dial the number back (which they do in all cases where a caller hangs up without giving information) but the new system will allow the number to be called back automatically.

Scott also noted that in cases where people call and hang up but there is a valid number that shows up and no one answers on the call back from dispatch, they (dispatcher) will send a police officer to the scene of the call to check the situation.

Another problem associated with 911 calls is when children play with phones and may dial and get 911 by mistake, which Scott says happens on occasions, especially when children are allowed to play with active cell phones. He suggests to parents that if they allow children to play with cell phones, to remove the battery, because any phone, whether used or not, that still has the battery attached, can reach the nearest 911 dispatch center when dialed.

Dispatchers and employees with the Clinton County Emergency Services spent some time training last week on the first portion of new equipment that is slated to be installed at the local dispatch center. The new state of the art equipment, when completely installed, will help emergency personnel better pinpoint the location where responders are needed when calls to the center come in.