RPSS, a company specializing in 911 systems, gave a presentation attempting to sell Bibb County’s E-911 board on the idea of changing our 911 system over to an updated, remote-hosted computer and internet based system that is currently being used in several other Alabama counties. The system would cost a total of about $138,000 over a five year contract, and come with all new equipment. This is roughly $9,000 cheaper than the current AT&T system in use.
Following the presentation, Green Pond Fire and Rescue took the podium to address ongoing issues with some new ideas.
The ideas proposed included allowing GPFR EMS to respond without a transport unit when AmServ did not have a paramedic on their responding unit, thus insuring a medic on scene as first responder. This would be a stop-gap until a different idea of installing GPS tracking systems on all ambulance units in the county would allow dispatch to actually see which unit was closest to any given call, and dispatch accordingly. While problems could still exist with that method – and these were discussed at length – all parties present seemed hopeful that the idea could work to provide potentially faster response times for residents in the north end of the county.
Currently, GPFR is not dispatched to any EMS calls unless AmServ does not have a unit available. According to residents and GPFR representatives, this has kept response times high.
