Council unanimously approved an ordinance to spend $434,000 for the replacement, maintenance and support of the 911 system.
The current system was installed in April 2010, and it has received a couple of minor upgrades through the years, but city officials said it is becoming expensive to maintain.
“The maintenance contract alone is costly,” Laura Wittrup, dispatch manager for the city of Pueblo, told council.
The current system is also dated and incapable of taking text messages to 911, which the new system can do, along with being able to send pictures and videos.
For instance, someone at a crash scene will be able to send a picture to dispatchers of what they’re seeing, Wittrup said.
Lori Pinz, director of information technology for the city, told The Pueblo Chieftain that the city hopes to have the new system operating before the summer, but the text-to-911 component would take longer because it requires a more complicated setup.
“There are a lot of hoops that we need to jump through for that particular aspect, and so we’d start out with a phased approach where we replace the system, we prep it, then we put the circuits in for the text-to-911 piece,” Pinz said. “We have to get some stuff approved and some testing done, so I’d say within 12 months is what I believe they’re looking at (for the text to 911 to be in place).”
The city will purchase the new 911 system from Solacom Technologies Inc. at a total cost of approximately $498,000, which includes $434,000 for installment, a payment of $32,000 due one year later for maintenance and support, and another $32,000 payment due two years later.
The city will appropriate $434,000 from its Emergency Telephone Charge Fund Reserves, with future appropriations potentially being made for maintenance and support.
ryans@chieftain.com
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