Published: December 24, 2008 12:26 pm      

Combined dispatch center delayed

AT&T will miss deadline to update equipment around Twelve Mile

Cass County residents will have to wait a little longer for the new combined dispatch center to go into operation.

Problems with phone service vendor AT&T, which serves 350 residents in northern Cass County, has delayed the start date from Jan. 1 to at least Jan. 12.

AT&T confirmed to the combined dispatch board that the company will fail to meet the Dec. 29 deadline to update equipment in the Twelve Mile area that matches the address and telephone number of a 911 call.

The specialist engineer who was supposed to conduct the work is currently on vacation and will not return in time to complete the upgrade before Dec. 29.

Eric Hartman, business development manager of INdigital, the company working with the county on the project, said he was disappointed by the delay, but relieved by the additional time the project now has.

“It is disappointing because a lot of the vendors we are working with put in a lot of effort to make the changes,” Hartman said. “They were putting in 12- and 14-hour days last week to meet the deadline. ... But on the bright side, it has given us a chance to re-test the equipment and with the ice storm last week we saw how the surroundings of the building stood up. ... I just felt that everyone was trying to put square pegs into round holes. The delay gives us a chance to relax and get the work done smoothly.”

Hartman added that he expects AT&T to complete the work by Jan. 5, which will allow the combined dispatch to go ahead on Jan 12. He warned, however, that this was still a provisional start date

“No date is set in stone yet,” he said.

Ron Miller, chairman of the Enhanced 911 governing board, said the delay was not a big deal and the combined dispatch center would wait until every resident had access to emergency services.

“It is a small number, but any small number is too many,” he said. “We can’t take the risk to leave people without access to 911. AT&T made a commitment to meet a deadline. But when it got to crunch time, something happened, and they were no longer able to commit.”

Miller said that combined dispatch staff would use the extra time for training.

Combined dispatch director Lori Forrer said city and county dispatch operators will continue separate operations until the new center is fully operational.

“It is not real big problem for us, it’s just something we did not anticipate happening,” Forrer said. “We need to make sure that any 911 calls are directed to us. There are specially qualified people that do this, and a lot of things for 911, and we have to wait until they are available.”

Forrer remained positive about the delay, adding that the center had already tested the new radios and would continue with testing the technical side of the operations until after Christmas.

“It’s more of a good thing,” she said. “It allows us to slow down and take a breath.”

Kevin Smith can be contacted at (574) 732-5148 or via e-mail at kevin.smith@pharostribune.com