Flagler County is gearing up for the largest overhaul of its 911 operations in the county’s history, aided by $269,172 in State of Florida grant money for hardware upgrades.
The money is coming to Flagler County in two grants.
“One grant was awarded for equipment, including console computers and GPS netclock, and software and licensing to connect equipment we purchased last year using 9-1-1 revenues,” said Innovation Technology Director Jarrod Shupe, who attended the recent State of Florida 911 Board meeting. “The second grant is for a replacement logging recorder, which records telephone calls to and from the 911 Call Center.”
The 911 Board awarded at total of $3.18 million in grants, and Flagler County walked away with 8.5 percent of it.
“This is the biggest overhaul of Flagler County’s 911 operations,” Shupe said. “This grant money will allow us to upgrade to an NG, or Next Generation, 911 system. It will improve the 911 Center’s ability to manage calls, natural disasters, and transferring calls for proper jurisdictional responses based on location tracking.”
Next Generation 911 will also allow for voice and text messages to flow seamlessly from the public into the 911 network. Texting abilities to 911 should be operational in Flagler County by the end of 2018.
Flagler County’s 911 system was initiated in 1988. The current 911 Call Center opened in 2006.
“Staff works really hard to bring grant money into Flagler County,” said County Administrator Craig Coffey. “This helps us get these big projects done. It is a benefit to our community when we can bring this extra money in.”
Funding for the 911 grant money comes from a 40-cent statewide surcharge to monthly landline and wireless phone service, as well as pre-paid wireless transactions.