Saline County, AR- The Saline County 911 Board will meet Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. at the Saline County Office of Emergency Management EOC. (102 South Main Street, Level B Benton, Arkansas 72015)
Agenda & Minutes are attached.
Meeting Agenda:
- Call meeting to order
- Review Minutes
- Old Business
- Discussion with Southern Software
- Directors Report
- City of Bryant Request
- New Business
Previous Meeting Minutes
SALINE COUNTY 911
BOARD MEETING DRAFT MINUTES
April 25, 2024
The Saline County 911 Board met at the OEM Building on Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 10:00 a.m.
Board Members Present:
Saline County Judge Matt Brumley
Saline County Sheriff Rodney Wright
Benton Fire Chief Russ Evans
Bryant Police Chief Carl Minden
Bryant Fire Chief Brandon Futch
Bryant Mayor Chris Treat
Saline County OEM Director Jerry Cohen
Saline County OEM Fire Service Coordinator Stuart Duke Pafford Ambulance Operations Manager David Chreene Benton Police Chief Scotty Hodges
Benton Mayor Tom Farmer
The Saline County 911 Board meeting was called to order by Saline County Judge Matt Brumley at 10:00 a.m.
Saline County Judge Matt Brumley presented the minutes to the board from the last meeting on April 11, 2024. A motion was made to approve the minutes by Bryant Police Chief Carl Minden and 2nd by Saline County Sheriff Rodney Wright. Minutes approved.
Contingency Plan for Call Center / 911 Outage: Saline County OEM Director Jerry Cohen updated the board on two 911 outages. One affected 55 counties in Arkansas and one was approximately 60 seconds. AT & T installed extra phones that will work outside of our system if outages happen again. Saline County is part of the easy net system which is located in Little Rock. The 911 calls go into the easy net system then it is assigned by ESN. The dispatchers know immediately if the system goes down.
Question for the board, do we want to go with automatic turn on of the easy net regular phone lines or make a call to the resolution center and ask to be transferred? A motion was made by Mayor Tom Farmer to call the resolution center to have them transfer if there is an outage in the 911 center and 2nd by Benton Police Chief Scotty Hodges. Motion carried.
AWIN: AWIN update but does affect 911. The system we use to tie in from AWIN to the state is on a T-1 line and they are going away. With the new AWIN system, the state requires it to be on microwave system and we need a plan by June 1st 2024 before the transfer is made.
The tower that is located at the OEM building has an issue. It did not pass the weight rating to add the new microwave dishes. We have 3 options: 1) Decommission the old tower and put up a new one. 2) Fix the old tower. 3) Construct a 2nd tower next to the old tower with an estimated cost of a Quarter million dollars. OEM Director Jerry Cohen recommends to the board for option 3.
Uniforms: (3) T-shirts and (1) polo is being looked at for each dispatcher. Nice pants, jeans, leggings or shorts, shoes (no flip flops). There is a uniform line item in the 911 budget.
Organizational Chart: The Saline County Sheriff Rodney Wright made a motion for the board to go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter. Benton Mayor Tom Farmer 2nd the motion. Motion carried.
At 10:43 am the Saline County 911 Board resumed the board meeting. Leadership of the 911 center was discussed. A motion was made by Benton Police Chief Scotty Hodges to appoint Saline County OEM Director Jerry Cohen to have oversite of the communication center as the 911 Director and 2nd by Benton Mayor Tom Farmer. This changes nothing in our current structure below Communication Director. Motion carried. Interlocal agreements discussed and the Communications Manager will need to change to 911 Director. A motion was made by Benton Police Chief Scotty Hodges for all departments involved that have the interlocal agreement anywhere that it states Communication Manager be amended to say 911 Director. Saline County Sheriff Rodney Wright 2nd the motion. Saline County Attorney Kolten Jones stated the changes would need to go before Saline County Quorum Court and the governing bodies of each city involved. Motion carried.
A motion was made to adjourn by Saline County Sheriff Rodney Wright and 2nd by Benton Mayor Tom Farmer. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 10:47 pm.