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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- The county 911 system is getting an upgrade.
Belmont County 911 Director Bryan Minder told commissoners about the work Wednesday and urged residents to register with the reverse 911 system.
The Belmont County Board of Commissioners during its weekly meeting entered a service agreement with Motorola Solutions for a radio system upgrade at a cost of $1,174,526, to be paid for with levy funds. The cost includes Essential Plus Lifecycle Services for two years.
Minder said the three-step upgrade process would begin with purchasing two remote-operator radio positions used daily by dispatchers.
"These will be on laptops. These can be used anywhere in the world, so our dispatchers can take and deploy these. As long as they have an internet connection, they will be connected to our county's radio system remotely, and they'll be able to sit down and dispatch from anywhere," he said, adding that the 911 tactical dispatch team trains with the sheriff's deputies for special operations. "They can dispatch directly from a scene, scenes of disasters."
He said the next step is purchasing software to connect first responders' mobile radios back to the 911 center. Third will be on-premise radio management, which will enable 911 to program radios and update software remotely.
"All this system is going to be put together as one big project," he said.
Commissioner J.P. Dutton commended residents' support of 911 levies.
"These are really crucial additions," Dutton said.
In answer to a question from Commissioner Jerry Echemann, Minder said the levy is 911's primary source of funds.
Minder also promoted the Code Red system that notifies residents in the event of emergencies.
"We call you if there's something that affects your address, as long as your phone number is in our database or has been signed up in our database," Minder said.
He added that the 911 database has home phone numbers but not cellphone numbers.
"We ask everybody, whether you think you might be in our database or not, please go onto our website -- belmontcounty911.com. Sign yourself up as long as you're a Belmont County resident," he said. "You can sign up by text, you can sign up by email, you can sign up by voice for your phone. We can give weather alerts. Weather warnings come through as well. Pretty much just any kind of emergency that will affect you."
Residents can also text the word "BELMONT" to 99411.
Minder said communities such as Bellaire, Shadyside and St. Clairsville have been using the Code Red system to send alerts.
Also, Minder is putting word out that at noon April 4 his office will do a countywide call for the entire database.
"Every number that's in our database -- we have over 50,000 numbers currently — we're going to call them all, and if they don't answer or they come back with a 'no longer in service' message, those numbers are going to be purged out of our database to clean it up, essentially. It's going to validate the data that we have."
Minder said if residents miss the call, a message will be left and they will be able to respond later.
He also said the state is also looking into next generation 911, incorporating text and images and establishing a statewide system.
In other matters, commissioners heard from Ron Graham, president of the York Township Board of Trustees, who updated them on efforts to resolve the issue of a worsening slip on York Township Road 132, or Little Captina Road. He believes a county project exacerbated the problem in October of last year through a waterline break.
Acting on the commissioners' advice, he said the township has contacted Ohio Public Works Commission, which will fund 90 percent of the $189,850 project. He asked if the commissioners would consider paying the remaining 10 percent.
Dutton said there has been a study of the area and there has been a history of movement in the ground.
"I don't know that our reading of it showed the conclusion that the county operation is solely at fault for the situation," he said.
Graham also said there is another county project in the works to relocate the waterline, but he believes the county is required to have an agreement with the township for damages.
"The board (of trustees) wants a written easement signed," Graham said. "As soon as that is approved, they can put in a new waterline, and then the slip repair can take place."
He also said the county should work with the township on planning the work.
"Ten years ago we made a resolution in the township for any boring that goes underneath the road, that there are fees by our township required," he said.
Dutton said the commissioners would review the matter with the Belmont County Sanitary Sewer District.
"We try to work with our local governments as much as possible," he said.
Graham said about 50-75 vehicles use the road daily, and two houses are affected.