Wyckoff said the Sequoyah County 911 board met July 2 to discuss and identify improvements for the coming year.
Those improvements and votes included:
—Consolidating the 911 dispatchers with the sheriff’s dispatchers — already approved.
—Consolidation of the two 911 trust authorities in Sequoyah County — no action taken.
—Establishing a 911 coordinator position — no action taken.
—Establishing an Emergency Operations Center — no action taken.
—Dissolving the merger of Sequoyah County 911 and emergency management — no action taken.
Dispatch Consolidated
The county commissioners commented they have already approved the sheriff’s and 911 dispatchers consolidating to save money.
The sheriff’s and 911 dispatchers share the same dispatch room in the county courthouse, with a wall separating the dispatchers. Sheriff Ron Lockhart and Wyckoff had earlier agreed to remove the wall and have two dispatchers for the sheriff’s 775-9155 telephone number and 911, and the commissioners agreed.
About improved radio communications, Wyckoff said ham or amateur, radio operators had asked him about having a radio and monitor in an area where they could be of help to the county in case of emergency.
Chris Keathley, the county’s Emergency Management director, said at one time a ham radio station was in the courthouse basement, but the basement flooded and the operators had to move out. One operator tried working out of his home to help the county, but Oklahoma Emergency Management (OEM) said that was not allowed. Keathley said he working on obtaining a grant to, perhaps someday, remodel the third floor of the courthouse as an emergency management center and a amateur radio operator would be able to work there for county emergency management. The third floor of the county courthouse was where the old county jail was located.
“Right now this room is actually the emergency management center,” Keathley said of the commissioners’ meeting room.
Lockhart countered, “They just want a place to put a system, just a radio and monitor with a licensed operator.
“There are 30 to 40 ham radio operators in the county. If the county doesn’t do, them I’m going to do it. We just thought it would be best in the dispatch center,” Lockhart said,
The commissioners approved allowing an amateur radio operator to operate out of the dispatch center on the courthouse first floor.
911 Consolidation
Several members of the Eastern Sequoyah County 911 Regional Trust Authority, the 911 system that operates in the 427- telephone exchange and is located in the Muldrow Police Department, attended the meeting and strongly opposed combining the two systems, until the Sequoyah County 911 system was at least brought up to date.
Wyckoff said the Sequoyah County 911 system hoped to combine systems to provide better service to the entire population of the county. It was noted that a 911 call to the 427- system in Muldrow took time to transfer to the county 911 system.
Muldrow Police Chief Tony Lewis and former Muldrow Mayor Dave Morgan said the 911 system in the 427- telephone exchange was approved by the voters, by about 90 percent, in the 1990s after other county officials ran into problems determining where and how a 911 system would be set up and operated.
Morgan said, “We hoped to go with the county-wide system at that time, in 1992 or ‘93.”
He continued, “We — the board, myself and David Taylor (Muldrow city manager) — decided to let 427- voters vote on a system to go in the Muldrow Police Department.
“We decided a stand-alone (system) wouldn’t be feasible,” Morgan said. “We decided to go with a system in the Muldrow Police Department. They have done an excellent job over the past years. The system has been updated twice and we have a complete updated system.
“We are not opposed to combining systems, but it has be by a vote of people in the 427- exchange, who own the system,” Morgan said.
Lewis added, “Obviously, with a small system like that you get it done quicker.
“Our system’s not broke. Our system works. Merging with one that doesn’t work would cause problems. I don’t think it’s a good idea. There’s no reason to fix a system that’s not broke. There’s no benefit to merging the systems,” Lewis said.
“I will admit,” he added, “it is confusing. We don’t care to help them (Sequoyah County 911 which serves all telephone exchanges in the county except the 427- exchange)…but merging the boards will require a vote. To save time and money, just leave them alone.”
Sequoyah County 911 has often been criticized for not working properly, but Wyckoff has pointed out in the past that the system has to deal with 12 different telephone companies, and mapping and addressing the county, which AT&T requires before taking over the system’s data base, has taken longer than expected. The 427- exchange system has already been mapped and new addresses assigned to residents.
Ed Henshaw, a resident of the Gore area, and others argued that a merged system would be more efficient, fewer dispatchers would be needed, and that neighboring counties had one 911 system.
“It’s embarrassing to me to see other counties have good 911 systems that work,” Henshaw said.
Wyckoff said, “We are getting to the point where we need to look at what’s best for the whole county.”
He said that seeking grants and other money sources for the 911 systems was confusing to the granting or assistance agencies.
Dennis Fields of rural Gore suggested a coordinator could be named to work with both systems and on grants.
But the Muldrow officials said that, even to do that, the people in the 427- exchange would have to vote to dissolve the east-end system and another vote held.
District 1 Commissioner Bruce Tabor, whose district includes Muldrow, asked, “In other words you want the west-end system brought up to the same standards and made compatible?”
The Muldrow officials agreed.
The commissioners took no action on the suggestion to merge the system, and Tabor suggested, “Both systems working together on grants would be a step in the right direction.”
911 Coordinator
The commissioners also took no action on Wyckoff’s suggestion that a 911 coordinator be hired.
Wyckoff said overseeing the 911 system, as a volunteer with no pay, was too much to handle.
“It’s getting bigger than I can handle,” He said. “I hate to say it but I’m getting too old for this.”
He suggested that the 10 percent telephone fee which funds the 911 system be raised to 15 percent, which the commissioners can do, to raise money to pay a coordinator.
Tabor suggested that a survey be done to see how much a coordinator’s salary would cost and how to pay for it.
Emergency Center,
Dissolving Merger
Keathley said he had applied for a $3.5 million grant to establish an emergency management center, “but nobody in Oklahoma got one.”
Wyckoff suggested that the 911 system and emergency management merge be dissolved.
The discussion between Keathley, Wyckoff and Lockhart got intense when Wyckoff said, “We got into some areas where information wasn’t shared.”
Keathley countered that during a recent storm, he had not been allowed to have information by the sheriff.
Lockhart said he had been told the sheriff’s dispatchers could not be in emergency management center with 911 because 911 had already merged with emergency management. Wyckoff said Keathley told him that 911 and the sheriff’s office couldn’t have an agreement if 911 already had an agreement with emergency management.
Keathley countered that “must have been a misstatement.”
He said the merger of 911 and emergency management “was of no benefit to me (emergency management).”
Tabor said, “It was my understanding the only reason to merge was to use any grants from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for both.”
He said, “We were told by the man from FEMA they needed to merge (to get grants).”
Tabor and District 2 Commissioner Steve Carter urged the men to work together.
“The bottom line is the (911) board works for us,” Carter said.
Tabor concluded, “We need to work together seriously. Put our differences aside and work together. We need to make this work the best way we can.
“We really need to look for a place (emergency management center),” Tabor said. “We’ve even run out of parking space.”
The commissioners took no action of the emergency management-911 merge or the emergency management center.
