By Ben Benton
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Copyright 2008 Chattanooga Publishing Company
KIMBALL, Tenn. — Marion County 911 Director Jerry Don Case said people have been asking what he’s up to lately.
Mr. Case’s 911 vehicle is an obvious newcomer to Marion County neighborhoods. but it’s the technology inside he wants to crow about.
“The general public just doesn’t realize how advanced the technology is that we have here to do our mapping,” Mr. Case said. He said people often stop him to talk and he enjoys showing off the new goods.
The county’s new, $120,000 mapping system from Knoxville-based GeoConex is simple to use, easy to update and streamlines information-sharing for emergency personnel, he said.
Computerized maps can be created, changed or deleted from inside his car, he said. The location of a new house or driveway, or an addition like an outbuilding or a tin roof, can be added in minutes, arming dispatchers and emergency personnel with the latest information as they respond to a call, he said.
Marion County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Jerry Hutchins, at the county’s 911 center, said the system improves response time.
“What we used to have was map books,” Sgt. Hutchins said. “You had to go in and manually look a street up in the map book.”
The new system offers more than an address, he said.
“It’ll show you which fire department goes, which ambulance service goes,” he said, pointing out the icons displayed on a screen as a call came in Wednesday.
“Where the dot flashes is where the call came in from, and it shows you a picture of the residence,” he said as a photograph of the caller’s house popped onto the screen.
The system can track cell phones equipped with global positioning satellite technology, known as GPS, he said.
If a car runs off the road or a boater has trouble on the Tennessee River, dispatchers can pinpoint a cell phone call within a few yards, he said.
And officials are trying to broaden the system’s availability, he said.
Sgt. Hutchins said Marion County’s E-911 Board agreed to help Grandview Medical Center get a license for the same software, so ambulances with onboard laptop computers can get the same information dispatchers see.
Jamie Lawson, spokesman for Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, said the hospital is studying the idea but hasn’t made a decision.
Hamilton County 911 Executive Director John Stuermer said officials checked out the GeoConex system but don’t yet see a need for a new one.
“It looked good. They had some modules we’re interested in and might be looking at in the future,” he said.
GeoConex President Craig Dotson said his software is used by 40 percent of the counties in Tennessee, including Bradley, McMinn and Monroe.
The software is compatible with the state’s and can be used by 911 officials who work with developers and surveyors, too, he said.
“Our software works and plays well with many other software formats,” he said.
Marion County 911 board member Louise Wilkey Powell said no county money was spent on the new system.
Mrs. Powell said much of the $120,000 cost was paid from $14 million in cell phone fees redistributed to 911 districts last year. The money came from changes in the distribution of the $1 fee on wireless phones. Other state grants paid for the rest without a local match, she said.
The system since 2001 “went from nothing to this beautiful dispatching system today” thanks to grants and support from the state, she said.