Wednesday, June 15, 2011 3:33 pm

Tuesday, June 14th, The Cannon County 911 Emergency Communications District Board of Directors adopted the 2011-2012 Fiscal Year budget on the Second Reading.

Due to the continuing decline in the number of landline telephones, there has been a estimated 4.7% decline in landline 911 revenue during the 2010 Fiscal Year. The previous year showed a 9.1% percent decline. Unfortunately, employee raises are not possible this upcoming year due to the decrease in revenue.

It was also discussed that this upcoming year will be very busy with the installation of a new IP (Internet Protocol) based 911 Controller in preparation for the implication of the statewide Next Generation 911 project being  developed by the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board.  It’s an exciting time to be involved with the 911 communication process and to be involved in such an innovative project.

Currently our 911 lines are routed via expensive, dedicated trunk lines. Cannon County currently has a total of six trunk lines and when we cross over to an IP based system those trunk lines will go away.  911 calls will then operate on a more redundant system with multiple network pathways to greatly reduce the chance of a network failure.

The state 911 board has allocated specific grant funding to aid in the upgrade of this equipment and adjunct equipment.