by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor 
  With final testing and installation of computer systems and DSL lines nearing completion at the Buchanan County E-911 center, it won’t be long until the new E-911 system is up and running.
   In fact, E-911 Coordinator Greg Clevinger said he hopes the transition is so seamless that the only difference emergency callers will notice is in the words used to answer the phone.
   “Instead of “Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department,” callers may soon expect to hear “Buchanan County 911. What’s your emergency?”
   “We will try to make it as seamless as possible,” Clevinger said, noting the day Verizon flips the switch to change over the service routing is likely to be by no later than the first week in November.
   Three dispatchers have been hired and will work with seven others already working for the sheriff’s department on alternating shifts so that the new E-911 center is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a weeks.
   Four stations are set up in the Public Safety Answering Point, or PSAP office of the E-911 office complex on Slate Creek. Four emergency lines have been established and those roll over automatically meaning emergency callers, unless there is a catastrophe, should never get a busy signal.
   The number of emergency lines to be installed was determined based on a recommended average of one line per 12,000 people and the system has been constructed to allow for future potential growth.
   “We feel this county will grow, so we put in two more,” Clevinger said.
   All calls are recorded.
   Each station has four separate screens surrounding the operator. One is a phone system screen; another is a CAD screen; another is a mapping screen; and the fourth is a radio screen.
   “What this system can do is unreal,” Clevinger said.
   The systems are costly, at about $386,000 for all four.
   Two stations will operate at all times, with the other two used as back-up stations.
    When callers dial in with an emergency, even the ring tone on the phone will be different. The system can distinguish between administrative calls and emergency calls, because of the numbers dialed. A normal ring tone will sound for administrative calls, but the ring tone for emergency calls, Clevinger said, demonstrating the sound, will definitely get the attention of operators there to handle calls and anyone else who happens to be in the area as well. The ring tone chosen is a Tarzan jungle yell.
   It’s definitely an attention getter, Clevinger said.
   When a caller dials in for emergency reasons, the computer screens in front of the operator will automatically pop up with an i.d. of where the call is coming from and from there, a key stroke or two later, the E-911 operator has the ability to pull up information on the location which will tell that operator everything he or she needs to know about where the dispatch assistance is needed -- from what established emergency service zone help needs to be dispatched, to other information about the household which the household turned in when completing its emergency cards earlier in the E-911 process. If the caller was specific when he or she filled out his or her card, then the computer will even alert emergency personnel to special needs such as the caller is  diabetic, takes certain medications or is in a wheelchair.