Ross County 911 System Recently Rebuilt but Now Needs State Review

The recently renovated county 911 system has to jump through another hoop. The state now requires the formation of a committee to report on the system, and Ross County Sherif George Lavender doesn’t see the point of it.

In his meeting with the Ross County Commissioners Monday, Lavender was gruff about the unfunded mandate…and the commissioners didn’t disagree with him.

But the good news is that Ross County 911 was recently renovated. The emergency system coordinator Larry Bamfield said the system just got a periodic rebuilding which was finished a couple months ago. He said the hardware runs 24/7 and needs to be replaced about every five years to keep the system reliable. (Recent 911 outages were brief and necessary to get the new system installed.)

Bamfield said the additional requirements by the state means he needs to form a program review committee to review his final plan, with state guidance, to show how the 911 system was set up and funded.

He and the sheriff also said that there might be state consolidation of 911 systems in the near future, where all calls might go through a couple call centers and then be routed to local law enforcement.

With increasing cell phone use and decreasing land line use, that would actually not be a big problem. While land line calls go through a local exchange, cell phone calls go who-knows-where and then are (hopefully) routed correctly, so another redirect should not decrease quality.

Find more in the article on the Scioto Post, including a video interview with Ross County Sheriff’s Department 911 Coordinator Larry Bamfield.

Kevin Coleman covers local government and culture for the Scioto Post and iHeart Media Southern Ohio. For stories or questions, contact Kevin Coleman or the iHeart Southern Ohio Newsroom.