County considering an advanced 911 system

Presentations were made before members of the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners on how to upgrade the 911 system to an automated program that displays a map and the location of an emergency. Currently, when someone calls 911 in Presque Isle County, the address is the only information dispatchers are given to relay to emergency workers. Denise Cline of the Northeastern Michigan Council of Governments (NEMCOG) gave a presentation on the Geographic Informational System (GIS) her organization is creating for Montmorency County. The system allows an aerial map and a route to be displayed on a computer screen whenever a call comes in to the system from a landline. James O?Loughlin of Image of America also made a presentation before the board to offer a special end of the season price on aerial photos of the county, since his firm already had been working in the region and had planes at Alpena County Regional Airport.

Even though the price was reduced from $73,000 to less than $45,000, and the price could be less if state funds were obtained, chairman Allan Bruder preferred to not make any hasty decisions. ?It is the one thing I don’t like to do, a spur of the moment $40,000 to $75,000 decision, without talking to a few people and thinking about it for about a week,? said Bruder. ?That bothers me.? Aerial photos were last updated in 2002 at a cost of $60,000, according to equalization director Sharyn Malone. O?Loughlin offered to work with the officials of the sheriff and equalization departments and come up with a plan before leaving town, and then presenting the information at the next meeting.

IN IMPLEMENTING the GIS mapping in Montmorency County, officials requested the services of NEMCOG rather than pay $120 an hour for a consultant. NEMCOG is doing the project at cost. Cline said Montmorency County had been using Mapquest, ?which is not the most accurate thing,? she said. ?What we were involved in was the location of actual structures.? To ensure the most accurate road data, NEMCOG would put a point on a map for every address structure in the county. When a call comes in, the records the phone company have for that address will automatically be matched to a data base. The roads are identified from aerial photos at the equalization department. Montmorency County?s aerial photos are eight years old. “If we cannot find it on the photo, we will drive to it using a GPS unit,? said Cline. ?We would then GPS the road.? System updates would be available to provide information such as the location of emergency vehicles, foot trails, along with oil and gas wells.

O?LOUGHLIN SAID the Image America digital photography makes it possible to tell the difference between an outbuilding and a stack of logs from the air. In explaining the price of the project, O?Loughlin said the typical cost will be about $73,000, but Image America offered an end of the season deal of $60,000. He said the state offers a 15 to 20 percent reimbursement for these projects. O?Loughlin said that would bring the net cost to $48,000. “Because of the interest that I got, and because of the work that NEMCOG is doing, if two or more NEMCOG counties sign up, we would go

ahead and knock the price down to $53,000, and your out of pocket costs would be approximately $42,000,? said O?Loughlin. Image America also offered to spread the cost out over two budget years. Even though O?Loughlin offered to honor the reduced price for next season, the commissioners decided to wait for additional information.

? A couple of commission members will be meeting with officials from the Presque Isle County Tourism Council to review their operation and to look at the organization?s future plans. Combined with the Ocqueoc Outdoor Center, the Tourism Council receives about $50,000 from the county.

? A decision in the labor dispute between the county and the Police Officers Labor Council still is about a month away. Lang said the arbitrator had a hard time interpreting information submitted, forcing briefs to be turned in later than expected. A decision was expected a month after briefs from both sides were filed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.