DISCUSSION: (DAY 1) WHY STARK COUNTY'S 9-1-1 IS SUCH A MESS. WHO'S TO BLAME? WHAT POLITICAL LESSONS DO WE LEARN FROM OUR HISTORY?

According to the "Regional 9-1-1 Dispatch Radio Study, and Recommendations (911 Report), "Stark County is served by a non-standard 9-1-1 call processing and answering environment ... '

What's wrong with being "non-standard," isn't Stark County unique?

The problem: Non-standard "results in the need to transfer well over 70 percent of the 9-1-1 calls."

So what? Delay, my friends, delay!

If it's your life on the line and that extra call or two has to be made before aid is on the way - it could be a matter of life or death! Only if you live in the city of Canton, does a 9-1-1 caller get immediate call receipt and dispatch.

All other Stark Countians experience at least one more call before dispatch is made. In 2006, the delay affected 130,000 Stark Countian calls.

The original set up by the 1986 set of Stark County commissioners initiated the onset of Stark County's "non-standard" 9-1-1 configuration. From the get-go, only Canton city residents go one-step 9-1-1 services.

Many times voters do not know what criteria to use to determine which of the commissioner candidates.

Well, "vision" is one criterion for sure, and, perhaps, gumption. Gumption? Yes, gumption!

Because of entrenched interest in the "status quo" system, it takes commissioners with the will power to resist and more forward for the good of all citizens against the established political interests (fire department chiefs, police department chiefs, and EMS leaders and their patron mayors, city/village councils and township officials).

More than 20 years later Stark County is dealing with deficient decision making in 1986!

Agree or disagree?