Next Generation 911 is a go

After months of planning and about 10 days of prep work, the Galesburg Public Safety Building’s 911 dispatch center has gone from a nearly 25-year-old analog system to a fully integrated digital one.

With the switch comes more efficient call deliveries and transfers, more ways to program various operations and better backup systems.

911 Coordinator Vicki Miller says the beauty of the upgrade is that the general public will not notice any difference.

The entire upgrade was expected to cost between $500,000 and $600,000, however, Miller says bids have shaved off a significant portion of those expenses.

Upgrades are being paid for through the Emergency Telephone System fund and public safety tax referendum passed last year.

So far, nearly $300,000 has gone into the project, an amount Miller says covers most of the process.

Work still remains, however. The next step is getting text messaging online.

Once that upgrade goes live, dispatch will be able to receive text messages and pictures.

Miller says the texting feature will especially benefit the hearing impaired who have trouble communicating during a traditional 911 call.

She says there is no timeframe for when the texting feature, but that crews are working “very aggressively toward it.”

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