-"9-1-1."
-"There's a fire on Brushy Mountain. A home is in danger!"
-"Hang on sir. I'll dispatch the fire department. Marble City Fire Department, we have a grass fire on Brushy Mountain. They said to turn right at the gravel road and you'll see the smoke. Marble City Fire Department...respond."
-"We're on our way."
Moments later...
-"9-1-1...dispatch forestry please, we could use some help up here."
-"Will do. Forestry, we have Marble City Fire Department requesting help at a fire on Brushy Mountain. They said turn right at the gravel road and follow the smoke."
A few minutes later...
-"We're 10-19. Everything's fine up here. We're going back to the station."
The 10-19 means the firefighters are going home. They were alerted to, found and extinguished the fire in less than the hour needed for an interview with 9-1-1 officials, and they saved the home of a county resident.
That's how 9-1-1 works.
Still, Sequoyah County 9-1-1 isn't a perfect system, 9-1-1 board members will admit, but voters approved the system and the board members intend to see the 9-1-1 system works to the best of its ability and that it be improved at every opportunity.
One of those opportunities is coming up Dec. 13 when voters in Sequoyah County will be asked to approve a 50-cent monthly fee on cell phones. Residents in both 9-1-1 service areas in Sequoyah County will vote on the fee. The fee is intended to be used to enhance the 9-1-1 system so that emergency calls made to 9-1-1 systems arrive at the right 9-1-1 office.
Charles "Chuck" Wyckoff, member of the Sequoyah County 9-1-1 board of directors, said 9-1-1 calls on his cell phone are directed through the Muskogee Oklahoma Highway Patrol office. Others he knows of go to Stilwell emergency services. Time is wasted while those calls are transferred.
The 50-cent cell phone fee will not only enhance 9-1-1 services by directing cell phone calls to the right 9-1-1 service, it may help save the Sequoyah County 9-1-1 service, Wyckoff said. The service is losing about $1,200 a month, and may be out of business within a year if additional funding isn't found.
Wyckoff explained that as cell phones become more popular, residents are giving up their landline phones.
"About 50 percent of all telephones are now cell phones," Wyckoff said.
The basic landlines phone bills have a fee of 15 percent added to pay for 9-1-1 services. That fee is split between salaries and operations. As the 15 percent money declines with the lesser use of landlines, so has the 9-1-1 service's income.
The 50-cent cell phone fee is designated to enhance cell phone 9-1-1 service, but it can be used to replace a portion of the operations now paid for by the landline fees, Wyckoff said.
Wyckoff said if the cell phone fee is approved, it is expected it will bring in about $4,000 a month, which will keep Sequoyah County 9-1-1 operating. In addition, the landline fees may be reduced from the 15 percent to whatever percentage is needed to keep the non-profit service afloat.
Wyckoff said the 9-1-1 dispatchers contact the rural fire departments directly to dispatch them to fires and emergency rescues.
They cannot dispatch for the police, sheriff's office or ambulance service.
Wyckoff explained, "We have the fire department's radio frequencies."
When a 9-1-1 call comes in, the calltaker asks the nature of the emergency. If it is a fire, she can dispatch the fire department immediately.
In the case that police or ambulance services are needed, the calltaker transfers the call by simply pushing a button, Wyckoff said. "It only takes a second," he added.
The 9-1-1 service in the 427- telephone exchange is dispatched by the Muldrow Police Department, which the service pays to do the dispatching.
At the Sequoyah County 9-1-1 service, the sheriff's office did not take on dispatching duties when the system was installed. Wyckoff, who wasn't on the 9-1-1 board at the time, said he isn't sure why the sheriff's office did not dispatch 9-1-1. When the service was initiated, Sheriff Johnny Philpot said the equipment was complicated, needed too much updating and maintenance, and did not work well.
Those are the problems Wyckoff said the present 9-1-1 board is trying to fix.
Sequoyah County 9-1-1 has other problems, which the 9-1-1 board is working to eliminate, Wyckoff said.
The problems include:
*Directing emergency personnel to the correct location
*An older system which needs to be updated
*Updating telephone numbers so that correct locations are identified
Wyckoff said the Sequoyah County 9-1-1 service and the 9-1-1 service which serves the east end of the county are having all locations re-addressed so that emergency services can find the locations. They already have numbered all the roads."
Each new address includes a road number and an address number. When completed, emergency services will no longer be told to "Turn right on the gravel road," or "Turn by the blue water tower," or "Turn left by the big cedar tree."
Wyckoff explained, "We and the Muldrow 9-1-1 service both had to look at what was best for the people. The new addressing is set up to expedite 9-1-1 response time. It is based on ODOT's (the Oklahoma Department of Transportation's) system."
That system already includes numbered county roads. The next step is to number homes and other locations.
In Sallisaw, Wyckoff said, a 9-1-1 call will instantly trigger the address of the call to appear on the calltaker's computer screen. But that doesn't happen anywhere else in the Sequoyah County 9-1-1's area yet. With the new addressing, and the switch to the SBC service, the rural addresses will also appear instantly.
In addition, the addressing is a requirement of SBC. Both the county's 9-1-1 services hope to turn over the services to SBC in the future. But to do that, SBC requires that some improvements be made, which includes the new addressing.
The Sequoyah County 9-1-1 service, as well as the service in the 427- telephone exchange, both also intend to upgrade their equipment and ability to update telephone numbers by combining services with SBC.
Wyckoff explained that SBC requires the local 9-1-1 services not only have the addressing accomplished but also upgraded equipment installed.
Wyckoff said, "When we looked at SBC, we found it was actually cheaper over a five-year period than the operations we have now. In addition, the SBC people are right here in case the equipment needs maintenance. But the new equipment won't do us any good until we get the addressing done."
Wyckoff said SBC will charge about $400 a month to provide 9-1-1 service, which will include a daily update of changes in telephone numbers.
Right now, Wyckoff said, "About one-fourth of our calls are the wrong number or the wrong address (because the system hasn't been updated). It's very frustrating."
He added that the 9-1-1 system is also not supplied with addresses for unlisted telephone numbers by the telephone companies. If a 9-1-1 call comes from an unlisted telephone number, and the caller is not able to speak, then the 9-1-1 dispatcher does not know where to send emergency personnel.
SBC, when it operates the system, includes the unlisted phone numbers.
"Our biggest cost will be our salaries and phone lines," Wyckoff said. Hopefully, he said, that will be covered by the telephone fees.
At the present time Sequoyah County 9-1-1 has three full-time calltakers, Stacy Donner, Tiffany Harrell and Debora Soto; two part-time dispatchers, Helen Buchanan and Robin Clark; and one calltaker is in training.
The dispatchers noted that they work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and on holidays.
Combining the two 9-1-1 systems, "could cut down on expenses," Wyckoff said, and the two 9-1-1 boards have had discussions about merging. "We've been working on a shoestring budget," he said, "and haven't been able to buy everything we need."
To those who criticize the Sequoyah County 9-1-1 system and say it doesn't work, Wyckoff responds, "The system does work. We're working to make the system better, and things are looking up."
