FARMINGTON — The chairman of the Franklin County commissioners recommended Tuesday the county contact a lawyer about continuing problems with the dispatch console installed in 2017.

Terry Brann of Wilton made the suggestion after Carold “CL” Folsom, director of the Franklin County Communications Center, listed the most recent problems with the Zetron Max Dispatch console.

Commissioner Charles Webster of Farmington suggested the county wait until after updated software is installed. He asked Folsom to report back to commissioners in November on whether the software upgrade corrects the problems.

Folsom said the newest software updates will not be released until Oct. 14.

Among the recent problems:

• When dispatchers click a mouse to select a channel, the application sometimes stops working.
• The system will sometimes go down without warning and has to be manually reset.
• Dispatchers have heard mysterious tones.

“The problem is the unknown,” Folsom said.

Commissioners voted in December 2016 to buy the console for $166,516 from Zetron Inc. of Redmond, Washington. It was installed at the Communications Center in the spring of 2017. In February 2018, the county’s Dispatch Advisory Board raised concerns about the console with commissioners. Representatives of the company met with representatives of the town about a week later.

Since then, patches and software upgrades have been installed to address past issues, but new problems keep popping up.

Scott French, vice president and general manager of Zetron’s Americas division, told commissioners in February 2018 the company would work with the county until all issues are resolved and confidence had been restored.

In March 2018, Zetron granted then Communications Director Stan Wheeler’s request for an additional two-year extended warranty on the dispatch console system.

The county has not signed off on the console, Folsom said.

Each time one problem is fixed, a host of other problems turns up, he said.

Four representatives of Zetron to the dispatch center earlier this month and worked on the system. They told Folsom the next version of software will fix the issues.

“The problem is we have heard that story before,” Folsom said.

He has a meeting with the Dispatch Advisory Committee on Sept. 4 at which he plans to discuss the matter.

If the problems are not corrected in October, Folsom said, he more than likely will recommend the system be removed. He said he would expect to get the county’s money back and buy another system.

Oxford County, which has the same console, has issues but not as frequently as Franklin County, he said. Other places have the same console and have had no problems, he said.

An email to Folsom on Aug. 14 from Dan Mason, director of engineering for Zetron, noted that fixes for most of the issues in Franklin County have been tested or are being tested.

“We feel that all the fixes should be tested together as a complete release to ensure the highest level of quality, rather than sending them to you piecemeal,” Mason wrote.

 

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