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County looking at county-wide emergency notification system
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Imagine a county-wide phone system that could warm residents of impending disasters.
•A railroad tanker car filled with anhydrous ammonia derails near Brownsville, putting those living in the small Mississippi River community and those in Brownsville Township in danger. With one phone call, this new system would send out a warning call to everyone in the affected area.
•A tornado is spotted just east of Spring Grove, bearing down on Caledonia. Residents of Caledonia, Caledonia Township, and employees at Beaver Creek Valley State Park could be alerted with one phone call.
•A 500-year rain event hits the county, causing massive flooding across a large portion of the county. With one call residents in the areas most impacted by the flash floods could be warned.
“There are many applications for this type of program. It’s basically a reverse 9-11 system,” County Emergency Service Director Kurt Kuhlers explained to the Houston County Board during the Jan. 22 meeting. “It certainly would have come in handy last August.”
Houston County is currently reviewing a proposed county-wide high speed emergency network, which would do all this, and much more. The program is called Code Red and is offered by Emergency Communications Network of Ormond Beach, FLA. The cost, according to Kuhlers, would be $10,000 per year, which would provide the county with 30,000 minutes of notification time.
“In reviewing the flash flood event of August 2007, the single biggest issue was warning people of the impending danger,” Kuhlers said. “We couldn’t physically get the word out to people. A system like this would have made a very big difference.”
The Code Red system can be activated to send a message out to all of the 9,800 households and businesses in the county with land lines, or any specific area, through Internet mapping capability for geographic targeting of calls when a more localized warning needs to be issued. Persons with cell phones can register their numbers as well and be part of the system.
The Code Red system can send out up to 60,000 calls per hour, based on a 30-second message length, and can be accessed for any Internet connection. The system monitors how many persons picked up their phones to listen to the message, and how many answering machines recorded the message.
The system offers five administrative accounts, giving five different individuals or departments access to the system.
Kuhlers said he looked at three different companies that offer this type of system and feels Code Red is the best system for the money. He said the closest community currently utilizing Code Red is Onalaska, which put the system in place this past November. He added he obtained a copy of Onalaska’s policy for the Code Red system and planned to re-write it to accommodate Houston County’s needs.
Commissioner Tom Bjerke asked what type of liability issues the county might be getting into if they put this system in place.
“People can sue the county for just about anything. This system wouldn’t be a cure-all, but it would be much better than what we have now,” Kuhlers replied.
Commissioner Ann Thompson asked if the various telephone companies serving Houston County residents should be contacted to see if there might be some issues or if they have had any past experience with any similar systems. Kuhlers agreed that would be a prudent thing to do.
When the issue of paying for the proposed system was brought up, Kuhlers said it would fall under the E-911 fund. Since all of the communities in the county are currently paying into the county E-911 fund, they would be able to utilize the system as well.
Kuhlers went on to explain that the system could be utilized by municipalities to notify residents when utility work was going to be conducted and power or water would be discontinued for a period of time. The system could also be used to notify persons of school closings.
The county board didn’t take any action on the Code Red system, but plan to re-visit the issue in the near future.
In other board action
Ambulance billing issue
County Sheriff Doug Ely informed the county board his department may be looking at somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000 in past ambulance bills and medical expenses incurred since 2005. The expenses are for medical care of inmates.
Ely stated medical care of persons in the sheriff department’s custody is the department’s responsibility. The local ambulance service, however, attempted to bill the inmates, with no success.
Ely was asked if a person in the county’s custody had insurance, if the county could go after the insurance company. Ely replied they will be looking at that avenue.
Bjerke asked what the city’s protocol was concerning this issue. Ely said he wasn’t sure, but so far, the county has not received any bills from the city.
“Being they don’t feel we need a jail, I guess they can cover this,” Commissioner Dave Corcoran said.
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