Bay County, MI: 911 problem fixed

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911 problem fixed

Friday, April 7, 2000 By Jeff Kart

TIMES WRITER

Bay County 911 has one problem solved and one to go, officials say.

Township fire departments complained last month about receiving incorrect information from 911 on printouts that are supposed to help firefighters get to emergency scenes.

One of those printout glitches - misinformation on contact names, key boxes and other details for businesses - has been corrected, said Gary C. Brozewski, acting director of Bay County 911 Central Dispatch.

Brozewski said technicians with New World Systems, the Troy company that installed the 911 system in 1998, made the fix about two weeks ago after county officials met with a company vice president about ongoing 911 system problems.

He said he sent a letter to all the county's fire departments about the fix being made and hasn't had any further complaints.

"We're trying to get things working; we'll see how it goes," Brozewski said. "It seems that New World is making an effort."

Rick Hoppe, Bangor Township's fire chief, said everything's fine on his end.

"Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction to resolve the problems we have out there," Hoppe said.

Hoppe said he's waiting to see what happens with the other problem fire departments complained about - getting the wrong information about hydrant locations when firefighters are dispatched to cross streets.

Brozewski said New World technicians are still working on that. The company told the county late last month that both the business and hydrant problems would be solved in no more than 60 days.

In the meantime, Brozewski said fire departments are no longer receiving any hydrant information on printouts when they're dispatched to cross streets. Instead, dispatchers are radioing the correct information, he said.

"It's better not to get any information than to get the wrong information," the 911 director said. Brozewski said he's also working to get New World to improve other parts of the system.

The enhancements would allow Central Dispatch to send printouts to up to five fire stations at a time. Currently, the system can only send one printout at a time, which means subsequent printouts are delayed during major fires.

New World also is working on getting the system to send printouts to fire departments after they respond to calls, listing information to help firefighters fill out reports, Brozewski said.

http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20000407b7cover2.frm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 07, 2000


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