911 system seeks money for upgrade New technology will pinpoint location of cell-phone callers By Paul Rioux St. Tammany bureau/The Times-Picayune An explosion in cell-phone use in St. Tammany Parish has helped improve rescue workers' response times to emergencies such as car crashes, which often are reported quickly by passing motorists on mobile phones. But critical seconds sometimes tick away as the caller struggles to describe the accident site, said Glenn Farrar, director of the parish's 911 system. The 14-year-old system cannot trace the origin of cell-phone calls, which account for more than half of all 911 calls, he said. "If you dial 911 from a land line in your home, we immediately know your phone number, your address, and which police and fire departments to dispatch," Farrar said. "But walk out your front door and call us on a cell phone and we don't have the vaguest idea where you are." That will change in the next year when the system is upgraded to pinpoint cell-phone calls on a computerized map, he said. To help pay for the $1.5 million project as well as a new 911 headquarters, voters are being asked to approve a 40-cent increase in the 911 charge on their monthly phone bills. A proposition on the Oct. 7 ballot would raise the charge for a residential phone line from 60 cents to $1; the fee for a business line would increase from $1.60 to $2. The proposition would not change the 85-cents-per-month charge on cell phones, which is set by the Legislature. The 911 charges now generate about $135,000 per month, Farrar said. The cost of running the system is $90,000, leaving $45,000 a month to gradually buy equipment, he said. "At that rate, it would take about 25 years to finish the job," Farrar said. "We can't afford to wait that long. Besides, we really don't have much choice." That's because federal regulations require 911 systems to identify the site of all emergency calls to within 160 feet by Oct. 1, 2001. If voters reject the fee increase, the 911 upgrade and new headquarters will be financed by long-term bonds, Farrar said. He said that option is undesirable because the 911 district still would be paying for the equipment after it had become obsolete. The parish has 110,000 land lines compared with 60,000 cell phones, whose use is increasing twice as quickly as that of land lines, Farrar said. A growing number of residents do not even have a land-line phone, and rely exclusively on cellular service, said Mandeville Police Chief Tom Buell, chairman of the 911 system's governing board. "It's critical for 911 dispatchers to know where calls are coming from," Buell said. "It means you can dial 911 and get help without even saying say a word." Besides the need to replace outdated equipment, 911 officials said the system has outgrown its headquarters next to the parish jail in Covington. "We got so cramped for space that I had to move out," Farrar said. "You know it's getting crucial when you've got to chase the director out because you don't have enough room." Plans call for finding a central location north of Interstate 12 to build a $1.5 million 911 headquarters that would double as a command post in emergencies such as hurricanes, Buell said. The proposition, which would generate about $500,000 a year, does not limit how long the new fee could be collected, he said. 09/26/00 � 2000, The Times-Picayune. Used with permission.