County 911 seeking new home

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer

July 15, 2008 04:37 pm

— Address work is progressing at a nice clip for a future 911 emergency telephone system as officials are also now eyeing a new home for that very same system meant to someday cover all of Garvin County.
A recommendation was given Monday for county commissioners to consider the possibility of acquiring the building formerly housing a radio station just southwest of Pauls Valley.
Chairman David Johnson told two commissioners the 911 committee he’s a part of is suggesting the building on Airline Road and the 9 1/2 acres surrounding it should be purchased by the county and used as the system’s communication center once it’s up and operational.
The recommendation calls for an offer by the county of $125,000.
“We recommend you make the offer,” Johnson told commissioners Kenneth Holden and Shon Richardson during a weekly meeting.
“Physically the building is in good shape. But the land is as important as the building,” he said.
“We want to have enough room to have a buffer or to expand in the future.”
The former radio station building is about 2,200 square feet in size, which Johnson said easily meets the needs of a 911 center.
Holden reminded Johnson the process of the county purchasing property is typically a “long and drawn out” thing, which means no final decision is likely coming soon.
Changing direction, both Johnson and 911 coordinator Diann Williams said a two-man crew is already off to a good start when it comes to the mapping and addressing of the county.
The work begun last week has covered many parts of the far northwest and northeast corners of the county.
Those officials with GeoComm, the contractor working on the project, are expected to continue the work into the fall.
“For a week our contractor has been doing GPS addressing,” Johnson said, referring to the Global Positioning System data needed for the future countywide 911 system.
“They’ve made reasonable progress. They look like they are on track to do what they said and finish by late September.”
Up until not it’s been believed the addressing would have no impact on incorporated areas, which are those areas within a town’s city limits.
That doesn’t appear the case now as Johnson told the commissioners the 911 committee will be working with the different cities as there will likely be some minimal addressing changes needed within the towns.
Those changes, meant to better fit a GPS system, would only come with the approval of a city’s governing council, he said.
“Originally we thought there wouldn’t be much addressing change within the incorporated areas,” Johnson said.
“There are going to be some changes. All of the cities have been made aware of this.”