Butler County will be making some improvements to its 911 system with an agreement with AT&T.
The proposed agreement was presented to the Butler County Commission Tuesday.
“What we’re asking for is authorization to sign an agreement with AT&T to get copies (of area addresses and phone numbers),” said Chris Davis, 911 director.
The county would receive CDs of data, known as the master street addressing guide.
“It is all the 911 data AT&T has for the all of the phone customers in our jurisdiction,” he said.
That information would display the name and address of a person when someone calls.
“Finally, the real driving force behind requesting this is we would like to replace the data we use now in the reverse 911 system with this data,” Davis said. “It should make our data more useable as well as being more accurate.”
They had tried to do this in the past, but AT&T had resisted releasing the information because they were concerned it could end up with telemarketers.
The cost for the information would be about $450 a quarter, and Davis is anticipating needing it on a quarterly basis, at least the first year.
“What I’ll sign initially will be a 12-month agreement to provide it quarterly and that will be on a yearly renewable basis,” he said. “After one year we can evaluate if we need it.”
Commissioner Jeff Masterson asked if the county was able to stay up-to-date without this information now.
“We’ve had some issues,” Davis said.
Commission Chair Dan Woydziak pointed out they are using old information and still calling people with the reverse 911 system who are not affected because they have moved, as well as missing people who should be called.
Davis said this 911 data is much more accurate than phone book data because it is the phone companies’ billing records. All phone companies are required to provide AT&T with this information through the KCC.
Of course, the big hole will remain to be wireless phones, which this will not cover.
Commissioner Will Carpenter made a motion to approve the agreement with AT&T, which was approved 5-0.
In other business, the commission held a public hearing for annexation of Rural Water District No. 6.
The area was being annexed after two existing water districts agreed to split some land south of Augusta between them. The land previously had not been part of a water district. More than 51 percent of the landowners signed the petition for annexation. Currently, some of the residents are on well water, while others are on rural water. This annexation gives the water districts the authority to serve the people.
One of those residents, Edwin Zimpfer, addressed the commission.
“I signed it (the petition) because I think rural water 6 has got water within a half mile of my house,” he said. “This has been in the works for about two years now. It would be of benefit to us.”
The commission approved the annexation unanimously.
The commissioners also:
• approved a resolution authorizing a bond reserve for taxable industrial refunding and improvement revenue bonds 5-0.
• approved, 5-0, a resolution for coordinated transit district No. 12 to be allowed to file applications with the Federal Transit Administration to be the designated recipient of federal funding under the New Freedom and Job Access/Reverse Commute programs. They also will administrate those funds.
• approved, 5-0, a field internship agreement with Allen County Community College to provide training for their MICT program students.
El Dorado, Kan. —
