Callaway County 911 Joint Communications is making some upgrades in response to a phone issue it experienced last month. Michelle Kidwell, director of 911 Joint Communications, said Joint Communications will replace its UPS battery backup.
Technology, Kidwell added, has gotten better over the years. The new battery backup, she added, will generate reports of how the system is performing.
"It will give us a heads up if there's a problem instead of something just quitting," Kidwell said.
The call center lost all phone lines April 13 during its weekly generator test. Phone lines were restored later that afternoon. Kidwell said that while the center has experienced small glitches in the past, she hasn't seen a generator affect the phone system like it did last month.
When phone lines were lost, Joint Communications immediately flipped a switch to transfer emergency calls to Audrain County's dispatch while they worked to restore the lines.
"Our operations were hindered, but as for emergency calls, we were still operational," Kidwell previously told the Fulton Sun.
While initially Joint Communications thought the phones went down due to a power surge, Kidwell said the city showed now evidence of a power surge.
Kidwell said Joint Communications brought an electrician out and thoroughly checked the entire system for problems.
"(We) checked the whole thing out form point A to point Z," Kidwell said.
Joint Communications continued to investigate the cause of the phone issue and had its generator checked out. The generator was functioning but needed a new voltage regulator. Kidwell said they replaced the voltage regulator and believe it could be a contributing factor to the loss of phones that day.
Kidwell added that Joint Communications is hoping to get the new battery backup as soon as possible and are waiting on quotes.
Last month, Kidwell told the Fulton Sun that the call center would also be clarifying policies and adding redundancies in response to this phone issue. Joint Communications contacted all appropriate departments when its phone system went down last month, but in some instances, they let staff members know rather than department heads.
If there is a problem in the future that causes Joint Communications to transfer its emergency calls to Audrain's dispatch, Callaway County emergency response department heads will be notified rather than any representative of the department.
Furthermore, Kidwell said she was working to set up call forwarding so the call center can utilize mobile phones in the event that it loses its phone lines again.