UPDATE: 08/19/2011 AT 6:20 PM.
9-1-1 Project Manager Joe Concatto responded to the Kirk video tapes as follows:
Martin,
I do not believe this is the fault of 9-1-1. Residence at this location can request a medic unit in four different ways:
1. Call 9-1-1 by land line and they can tell the dispatcher what apartment they are in. In some cases the apartment number would be included in the information the dispatcher receives from their 9-1-1 automatic location information. If the resident cannot speak and this information is not part of the 9-1-1 automatic location information then the dispatcher will only know the address of the building from which the call is coming.
2. Call 9-1-1 with a wireless phone and they can tell the dispatcher what apartment they are in. However, if they cannot speak the wireless call will only show the location of the cell phone within 200 to 300 hundred feet. It will not tell the dispatcher what building they are in nor what apartment they are in.
3. The person may have a medical alarm necklace or wrist band that when pressed will initiate an alarm at a private security/alarm company. That company would then call 9-1-1 and would let the dispatcher know the problem and the apartment number. The dispatcher would dispatch a unit according to this information.
4. Each apartment has an e mergency pull chain that when pulled lights up a panel on the first floor which identifies their apartment number. It will alsoturn on a light above their apartment. The pull of the chain will also call a private security/alarm company who in turn will call 9-1-1 and identify the alarm. The alarm company and the unit responding relies on the first floor panel to know what apartment hasthe problem. If the panel does not light up and the alarm company doesnot know the apartment number than the medic unit must go floor to floorto look for the light above the apartment door.
I think #4 is what happen in this case.
Don't hold me to these procedures but I believe I am close.
ORIGINAL POST
"These are times that try men's souls" these days among those who are directing the effort to fix what has been termed to be a badly broken Stark County 9-1-1 emergency services call receiving and dispatch operation.
It appears to The Report that ONLY Mayor William J. Healy, II of Canton stands in the way of completion of the project.
One has to wonder how Healy can and Canton City Council (who the SCPR faults for allowing Healy to block Canton's participation in a countywide system) can sit and listen to Canton citizen Patricia Kirk (July 11th and August 8th) describe (during Public Speaks) alarming instances of what appear to be 9-1-1 operation problems at her (where she lives) Canton-based tall, multiplex apartment building and persists in resisting efforts to complete the merger of the system into a two-center (one prime, one backup) operation.
The SCPR has forwarded copies of the videos of Ms. Kirk's presentation to Concatto for analysis and it could be that Healy's blockage has nothing to do with the Kirk described problems. However, The Report believes that whether or not such is the case, it cannot be good for Cantonians, Stark Countians or anyone traveling through the Stark County area in need of emergency services for the fracture between Canton and Stark County on 9-1-1 complete integration to persist.
The SCPR has long maintained that Healy is a "my way or the highway" type of guy. Not only on 9-1-1, but on virtually any governance issue where he see that there is an question on who is going to be in charge.
Though in his political campaigns he is known to use the phrase "TeamHealy." Mayor William J. Healy, II is no team player as far as Stark County's welfare overall is concerned.
But credit Stark County officials (the commissioners and the Stark County Council of Governance [SCOG] and its governance committee (headed by Jackson Fiscal Officer Randy Gonzalez) for persisting on the project.
Commissioners, on Wednesday, reaffirmed their commitment to maintain the approximate $2.75 million in sales tax money collected (from the imposed 1/2% by Bosley, Harmon and Vignos), to aid in the rehab of countywide 9-1-1. Moreover, they passed a resolution putting out for bid a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) software program (which is likely to cost about $1 to $1.5 million dollars) at the request of Concatto.
Here are videos of Concatto at Wednesday's meeting updating commissioners on the progress of the repair of 9-1-1 and also amplifying his comments to commissioners in a separate interview with the SCPR:
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