Officials prepare to cut ties with Geo-Comm

Nearly a month after giving Geo-Comm a deadline to make its AVL (automated vehicle location) system work in Callaway County, local officials say they are finished with trying to find solutions.

At a May 23 teleconference between Geo-Comm and representatives with the Callaway County Ambulance District, the Callaway County Sheriff's Office and the Callaway County Commission, all parties agreed to try one last proposed fix to compatibility problems between Geo-Comm's AVL software and ambulance and sheriff equipment: A discreet external GPS modem that would be installed in each of those agencies' vehicles.

Representatives with Geo-Comm agreed to procure a pair of modems and the air cards that would be needed to enable communication between the modem and local equipment to test, and were given a July 18 deadline to make that work. At the time, Geo-Comm said it would be a week or two before the equipment would arrive in Callaway for installation and testing. As of Wednesday, that equipment still had not arrived, and local officials said even if it had been delivered, yet another obstacle had cropped up.

"Even if this proposed solution proved to be successful, it creates another issue," said CCAD Director Charlie Anderson. "Our (both the ambulance district and sheriff's office) laptops are created to be taken in and out of the vehicles. Because of that, each vehicle would have to be equipped with two air cards - one for the laptop and one for the modem.

"None of us are willing to do that."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.