New dispatch center board seeks fifth member

The Western Missouri 911 Dispatch Center Board's first meeting netted just one decision -- to determine the board's fifth member before proceeding further. The four permanent members; Bonnie McCord, Vernon County presiding commissioner; Ron Peckman, sheriff; Harlan Moore, Nevada city manager; and Gary Herstein, chief of police; came together and intended to choose a slate of officers for the board but decided they needed to select a fifth, at-large, member of the board before doing so.

So, with that goal in mind, the group decided to request those residents of Vernon County who had an interest in serving on the board indicate their interest in a letter and hand carry it to either city hall or the commission office in the courthouse.

"We'd like to put a notice in the paper letting the public know the dispatch board is seeking individuals interested in serving on the board as at-large members," Moore said. "I think the best way for them to do that is to have them bring either Bonnie or myself a letter of intent by Monday of next week."

Time is short for this process, because the fledgling board's next meeting is slated for Wednesday, May 6, at 2:30 p.m., in the city council chambers.

Another item on Tuesday's agenda -- finding someone to fill a paid director's position -- also was postponed until the group's next meeting.

"We are seeking someone to fill the director's position but that is something we need to have a fifth member for," Moore said. "We'll postpone the rest of this agenda until we can hold that meeting."

Nevertheless, an informational discussion did take place, relating to addressing and coordinating 911 service with the county's new addressing system. Tim Bourassa and Mark Mitchell were present and participated with the four members of the board in a conference call with representatives from AT&T concerning implementation of the enhanced 911 service. It was decided to have Bourassa be the contact person for AT&T, since he is handling the changeover to the new addresses for the county.

One of the first things Bourassa had to explain is why it takes so long to correct erroneous information.

"I'm working with the post office and it's a matter of them not having the manpower to sit down with me and go over the information and point out where errors are," Bourassa said. "It will take about eight more weeks to finish Nevada and the post office is the only organization that has the expertise to do this. They can tell which houses have multiple addresses and where addresses are out of order."

Bourassa said one section of Ash was particularly noteworthy, giving an example of some of the issues at hand.

"There's one block, the 1800 block on North Ash, that is north of the 1900 block," Bourassa said.

Bourassa said that the state 911 standards required the entities operating Enhanced 911 facilities to meet certain requirements including one that mandated the database be 97 percent correct.

"They require databases be 97 percent correct," Bourassa said. "I can get you to that but right now you're at about 70 percent. It will take some time to weed out errors."

Bourassa said where an error was found, either because an address was not in correct sequence or because it had more than one address assigned to it that address would have to be changed. He said it was important to note that not every address would change, just the incorrect ones.

"Everyone's address isn't going to change," Bourassa said. "Just a few need to be corrected."