BENTONVILLE — With any luck, Benton County will have a telephone notification system before the year's end.
Throughout June and July, reverse 911 made headlines when Benton County Judge Dave Bisbee and his administrators chose to use grant money originally designated for the telephone notification system to install security cameras inside the Benton County Administration Building instead.
After nearly two months of standing behind his decision topurchase security cameras for the administration building rather than move forward with implementing a countywide telephone notification system designed to alert residents in the event of an emergency, Bisbee informed justices of the peace during July's Quorum Court meeting that the county would, indeed, pursue the project.
At that time, residents applaudedBisbee's decision to implement a reverse-911 system and spoke of the benefits such a system could have for Benton County.
Before Diane Gately of Rogers moved to the city, she lived in an area where reverse-911 had made a difference, she said, as she recounted times when she was noti-fied by telephone of a hostage situation in her area and of an unstable person who had a gun in a nearby school.
When Jim Hegwood of Lost Bridge Village in Rogers addressed the Quorum Court that night, he reminded them of the county's mission statement to ensure the health and safety of all Benton County residents.
"It is your responsibility to uphold the mission statement," Hegwood said that night. "As of this day, the county has turned its back on reverse 911. We know there are a lot of reasons, but the defacto matter is reverse 911 is not being implemented."
Hegwood then reminded justices of the peace that "the greater liability is turning your back on reverse 911."
Following the July session of the Quorum Court, several JPs, Bisbee and representatives from cities sat in on a demonstration of Code Red, a telephone notification system, and members of the county's Long Range Planning Committee determined that they should hear from more companies before making a decision on which one to choose.
Since that August demonstration, county administrators have been gathering information for the Quorum Court, Bisbee said.
"We are getting information for the JPs, and then it will bea policy decision the Quorum Court is going to have to make," Bisbee said.
Marshal Watson, director of the county's Department of Emergency Management, has been charged with gathering that information.
"I was tasked to pick up the project and start looking at vendors to see who could meet our needs and our requirements," Watson said, noting that Benton County is looking for a system that will be capable of sending out severe-weather notifications as soon as it is purchased.
In the past month, the search for a county reverse-911 system has been narrowed to three vendors, Watson said.
Further product demonstrations will take place during October, and as soon as the Quorum Court makes its decision on which system to pursue, negotiations and implementation of the system will begin, Watson said.
During Thursday night's Quorum Court meeting, Bisbee asked the JPs whether they wanted him to bring reverse 911 presentations to a committee or all 13 justices.
The JPs thought it would be appropriate to have the presentations during a Committee of 13 meeting.
Bisbee told the justices he made only 3 requirements of Watson when it came to reverse 911. Bisbee said he wanted the system to notify people of life-threatening situations; people should have to opt out of being on the reverse 911 database; and he wanted whatever provider was chosen by the county to have its own database.
News, Pages 1, 8 on 09/28/2009