09/24/1980 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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hearing before the County Commissioners. It will require a vote of the e people on February l7t 1981. If it passest the decentral-decentral 9.11 system then could be established within 15 months. Anyone in the Eugene area could call 911 to get fire, policet or ambulance service. This also would operate in the Springfieldt Cottage Grovet and Florence areast and will operate at a later date in Oakridge. This should help ease problems for those in emotional states facing emergency situations. Th is also will alleviate the need to deposit ten cents per call from phone booths for emergency service. Under the decentral-decentral systemt calls would be received in a number of centers rather than in just one. They would then be transferred to whatever department was appropriate. The central-central system consists of only one receiving/dispatching centert but this would be much more expensivet requiring all dispatching and receiving equipment to be at one location. This would require having all agencies agree on a common procedure for handling calls. All personnel would have to be trained alike. Service providers agreed that the central-central system would be idealt but not practical at the present timet so their recommen- dation is to adopt the decentral-decentral system with an eventual move to a central-central system. The City must proceed now or it may never be implemented. The telephone system is set up according to telephone exchangest which do not coincide with jurisdictional boundaries. Some unincorporated areas would be served by the Eugene center as well as areas within the city limits. The Eugene Fire Department already dis- patches to other areas. Likewiset the Springfield center would handle some calls from unincorporated areas. This is the least expensive and the most cost-effective alternative for all jurisdictions. The Sher iff is e opposed to this number of centers because he feels his department should have its own center to serve all unincorporated areast which is one alternative in the report. This would give a portion of the Bethel-Danebo area to the Sheriff's Department because of the telephone exchange system. The tax collected in a particular service area would be used for funding the program within that particular service area. The total cost would be $150tOOO to $175tOOO county-wide for the first yeart and eventually would be a three-percent levy on local telephone calls. The report only lists some of the costs as more personnel will be needed to receive calls in Eugene and Springfield. The hope is to consolidate the Eugene Police Department and Eugene Fire Department into a single dispatch area at the same time. Jim Packardt Policet stated that he had met with the user groupst and feels we should proceed with the decentral-decentral 911 system, yet work toward a central-central system. He feels the concerns from the sheriff might be overstated and they could be overcome at the time of implementation. , Ms. Schue asked if a busy signal would ever be received by a caller dialing 911. Mr. Packard said that this is a possibility as during disasters, when the phone company lines can become jammed. The eq ui pment avail ab 1 e should be more than what is needed at any peak time with the exception of di saster times. Available personnel must be taken into consideration. Ms. Schue asked if the caller would ever be put on hold. Mr. Packard responded that that is a possibilitYt but the hope is that the delay would be no longer than 30-60 seconds. e 9/24/80--5