DIXFIELD — Fire Chief Scott Dennett has been tasked with working on E911 addressing challenges with accurate information.
At the Select Board meeting on Sept. 25, the board voted 5-0 to spend up to $20,000 from (American Rescue Plan Act) ARPA funds for this effort, and to revisit this issue if needed.
Dennett, who said he has about 40 hours into this now, noted, “We need to do an overall review, get to a baseline that we think is reasonably accurate…and I think that’s going to take a little bit of time.”
He suggested setting aside ARPA funds to do some review of the 911 system, “to see if we can fix it as best we can.”
Dennett gave some examples.
“The numbers that had been assigned in the very distant past in Timberland Pass are pretty messed up. I’m trying to work with it so that we don’t disrupt anybody who does have a number. And based on the size of lots right now, I think we can do that,” he said.
Dennett said, “I’ve even found some errors in town, and wrong lots being appointed a number when that lot isn’t here, it’s over here. It’s just a mixup with respect to the system itself.”
He noted, “So intown is not exempt from it, but I think we’re going to find fewer problems here. More often, what I’ve been dealing with is outside the town. Even in East Dixfield, we do have an issue there with some numbering of lots that are really on different roads than what they’re appointed and some of that is because of access.”
Dennett said that right, wrong or indifferent, there are all kinds of these issues.
He said other issues include, “People have made up numbers on their own. People have been verbally given numbers, but it’s not in the 911 system, and if it’s not in the 911 system, then your services, such as utilities or even Google are not going to match up.”
Dennett said if he utilizes 10 hours per week as an average, it would give enough time to work on this, which would take less than a year.
Town Manager Alicia Conn said the cost to do this could be around $10,000.
Dennett will be doing the work himself, about $20 per hour without benefits.
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