The Montgomery County Joint Communications Center has received grant funding that will help every citizen to have access to 911 in the county.

The 911 center, which is located at 250 Pickering in Montgomery City, was awarded a joint grant with Warren County in May that totaled $753,728.33 between the two agencies with a required match of $94,216.04. Recently, the center received a second grant of $213,783.47 with a match of $21,378.35.

Director Josh Waters said the grants will allow the center to update call-taking protocols, finish building out a fourth-dispatch console and update data in the center’s GIS mapping system.

“We’re definitely moving forward and improving our internal infrastructure for the betterment of the citizens of Montgomery County,” Waters said.

The first grant came from the Missouri 911 Service Board. It opened the application process to award over $20 million in ARPA funds to update the 911 infrastructure in Missouri.

“The initial awarding to them was $11 million,” Waters said. “The final award to the Missouri 911 Service Board was around $22-23 million to distribute statewide for upgrades to Missouri’s 911 system. The Missouri 911 Service Board’s main focus is for every citizen to have access to 911 in the state of Missouri, 24/7 and 365 days a year.”

The Montgomery County 911 center and the Warren County Emergency Communications Center filed a joint application to bring Next Generation 911 services to citizens and visitors. The grant will help bring the Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet) and a new computer aided dispatch (CAD) system capable of processing NG911 data to Montgomery and Warren counties.

“We went together with Warren County and wrote a joint grant for ESInet service for better interoperability and a better chance in getting the grant awarded because the 911 Service Board wanted to see interoperability in these grants they were looking at,” Waters said.

Waters said ESInet simply takes a 911 phone service and puts it into a network.

“Voice over IP (internet protocol) phones are nothing new,” he said. “They started in the early 2000s. However, nobody really did this with 911 before.”

The center’s CAD system will integrate GIS mapping, 911 call data and data from Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System (MULES) directly into one program.

Waters said the second grant is a Next Generation 911 grant that will help improve on call-taking protocols.

“Currently, what we’re using for call taking protocols are a bunch of printed out flip cards,” Waters said. “It’s a large chart of flip cards that we flip through with pre-printed instructions on it. It’s basically a flow chart that call takers go through to gather information from callers as well as give them instructions prior to the paramedics arriving on scene or the fire department arriving on scene. We’re going to upgrade from that paper version to a computerized version. That computerized version is going to help immensely with efficiency.”

Waters said a fourth console is currently being built at the center.

“Whenever this building was first built, essentially they got a deal from the furniture company,” Waters said. “It was essentially buying three consoles and getting a fourth for free. However, they did not have the funds in the capital expense account to completely build out that fourth station. So we have this empty piece of furniture, but no computers and equipment on it. We’re now going to be able to build out that station and have a fourth station. That’s going to help us more easily train new hires hands-on on the equipment they’re going to be using instead of stuffing them in a classroom for a period of time and them trying to relate to something that is not in front of them.”