ADDRESS CHANGES PENDING; CONVERSION NEEDED FOR NEW 911 SYSTEM

The conversion of Cape Girardeau County's rural addresses for its county-wide 911 emergency response system could begin early next month.

A member of the county's enhanced 911 advisory committee, Allen Moss Jr., said Thursday that panel is awaiting approval of a contract by an Overland Park, Kan., engineering firm, ETG.

ETG would handle the address conversion part of the 911 project. Moss said the committee hopes to have a decision from the company within the next two or three days.

Committee Chairman Brian Miller, the county's emergency services director, said the contract is supposed to be signed before Wednesday. A signature by that date could put the address conversion in motion within a week. ETG has already done some preliminary work, according to Miller.

Completion of the task would probably take 10-12 months, he said.

County voters last November approved a phone fee for the 911 system. The system is required to have its hardware in place and on line two years from the vote.

"Before we ever brought it to the public we had done a lot of work, and this has stood us well. If we had to start learning all this after the vote it would take months and months and months to get that going.

"In the process of developing this 911 system, time is of the essence and we have a very definite deadline. Unless there's some kind of catastrophe in the county that throws everything out of whack, we're not going to have any problem making that date."

With a 911 system, a person faced with an emergency dials 911 on their telephone to start the dispatch of emergency responders, such as ambulance or police personnel. Conversion of the addresses is a necessary part of building the system's data base, known as a Master Street Access Guide.

Ron Andrews, director of the county's Data Processing Department, said early this year that the computerized data base will contain county phone numbers and address locations that emergency re~sponders need. Addresses in the counties' municipalities will not have to be converted.

The committee chose ETG for the address conversion task about a month ago. Committee members unanimously recommended ETG to the Cape Girardeau County Commission, which would enter into the contract with the firm, Miller said.

"The firm does a lot of engineering work and mapping work for the telephone companies, like GTE and Southwestern Bell and other companies like that. They're well-regarded and we feel they would do an excellent job for us," he said.

Moss, who is employed as the state's assistant attorney general at Jackson and was appointed to the committee as a citizens' member, said ETG submitted a proposed contract. The committee saw some changes it wanted made, put them in writing, and resubmitted the contract to the company, he said.

ETG had said the cost of the conversion would run $134,291, according to Miller. But he said that contract figure would be substantially less based on some changes that are being negotiated.

The needed address conversion has prompted a few people to voice concerns, said Miller.

"They've come in and asked a lot of questions: `Why do I need to do this?' and `How are things going to work?' those kind of things. I haven't really had anybody come in and stomp their foot and say, `By God, I don't want my address changed,'" he said.

Many more people have responded with positive inquiries, he said, such as asking how soon the system can be ready.

An address change doesn't bother Martha Mangels. Mangels has lived 15 years on Route 1 at Oak Ridge, where her husband, Verlin, and their three children also reside.

"I could care less," she said. "We can get used to anything new."

Mangels said she is in favor of starting the county-wide 911 system and believes it would be best for everyone, despite the address changes.

"I really think most people would be in favor of it. I can't imagine not," she said.