A partnership between Jessamine County E-911 and adjoining counties in an E-911 Regional Infrastructure Network will only provide better emergency service coverage, according to director Shelby Horn.
The county is partnering with Fayette and Woodford counties, and Horn said the benefits are many.
“What this does is it creates a redundancy between the three of us,” she said. “So, if a line between here and Lexington went down, then my calls would reroute through Woodford and back to us.”
The counties involved received a grant from the Commercial Mobile Radio System, which is connected with Homeland Security, for $497,000 to create a Central Kentucky Regional Network, Horn said.
“So, what we did, the three of us connected to a network, and instead of going through Windstream routers, we’re connected through an IP-type network, which is statewide,” she said.
Horn said the partnership is also benefical from a cost-savings point of view.
“The current cost for maintaining a regular network was $7,640 a month,” Horn said. “Going with the regional (network), it’s $5,473 a month.”
Horn said there are other counties around the central Kentucky region wanting to join the network.
“I think there’s about seven counties right now,” she said.
Horn said it was impractical and cost prohibitive to establish and maintain a separate 911 network system.
“It’s mutually advantageous for us to combine resources and enter into a Central Kentucky Network agreement,” she said.
Horn said the network also paves the way for the future of E-911 with the program known as the Next Generation E-911.
“The use of an IP network to transport 911 calls will contribute to the necessary migration for us to the Next Generation E-911 system, which is where everything is going,” she said. “This will already be in place for us to just connect for Next Generation when we get the new equipment.”
Horn said Next Generation will be in Jessamine County within the next 12-24 months.
