The Effingham County Emergency Telephone System Board discussed replacing the phone system at their meeting on May 9th.
During their meeting on Tuesday, Sheriff Mahon gave the Equipment Committee Report. During this report, he suggested that the Board begin considering replacing the phone system. At this suggestion, System Administrator, Jodi Moomaw informed the Board that she will be reaching out to vendors regarding the replacement of the phone system. She suggested that the Board consider a Next Generation (NG) phone system. Moomaw stated that the NG phone system has many benefits, including being able to receive text messages. The biggest benefit of the NG phone system is that it collects the data from an emergency call so that if a call needs to be transferred to a different county, the data will be sent with it. This allows the other counties to be able to locate their call without the chance of any data being lost. Additionally, the typical lifespan of a phone system is 7 years. Effingham County got their current phone system in 2007.
Additionally, the Board approved the purchase of an online training for the county’s telecommunicators. The training provides a real-life situation that the telecommunicators will go through as if it was an actual call. They will then be tested on the material that they covered. The County did have a 6 month demo of this training. The training was purchased for one year for $960.
Other items covered at the Effingham County Emergency Telephone System Board meeting:
- Discussed an active shooter training that is being held in Effingham on July 31st
- Discussed and approved sending telecommunication administrators to the Spillman Users Group Conference on September 19th through the 22nd.