Enhanced response

May 10, 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Fifty-one percent of 911 calls (in the Valley) are made from wireless phones.

"When a wireless call comes in right this moment," said Palmer Police Chief George Boatright, "I have not a clue where it came from."

That the current 911 technology is quickly becoming outdated is one thing agreed upon by all emergency-service providers in the Valley - the Mat-Su Borough, Palmer, Wasilla, Houston and the Alaska State Troopers.

Land lines provide location information to call-takers, but in-state cell phones give only a number. Out-of-state cell phones provide no information.

Take, for example, the recent case of Grace Oomittuk, a Palmer woman.

"Dispatch saved that girl's life," said Palmer dispatcher Stella Wiggins.

Troopers arrived in time not because her phone gave her location away, but because Myra Lanthier, the 911 call-taker and dispatcher, happened to recognize the name given on the phone's voice mail message - and knew where she lived.

Given the current 911 system, without luck like that, Oomittuk might not have made it.

Life-or-death cases like Oomittuk's lead emergency responders to enhance 911 technology: No matter what kind of phone makes the call, they should know where it is. Cell phones equipped with global positioning systems can pick up location information from satellites and send the information to the 911 answering point - if the answering point has the equipment to receive it.

To pay for the upgrade, phone companies - in agreement with local municipalities - collect a fee, which has been capped until now at 75 cents. In the Valley, the borough receives the money from Matanuska Telephone Association and distributes it.

A bill currently in the Alaska Legislature raises the cap on that fee from 75 cents to $1.50.

But the questions of how and by

whom enhanced-911 funds are spent have been fraught with distrust and disagreement for at least the last half-decade.

There are two fully functioning dispatch centers in the Valley. Palmer dispatchers handle Palmer's and the borough's fire and emergency medical services. They also answer all 911 calls for the Valley - MATCOM, the borough 911 service, operates within the Palmer dispatch center - forwarding calls to the troopers and Wasilla as necessary. The Wasilla center handles Wasilla police and, on a limited basis, trooper dispatching.

At an April 15 meeting in her office, Sen. Lyda Green, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, held the bill hostage in the committee until all the parties involved would agree on how to spend the money, or at least agree to agree in the future. No agreement, no money.

"I don't care how they split it up," she said.

Three of the five members of the borough e-911 board, which comprises one person from each city, the borough and the troopers, must vote together on their funding recommendations to the Borough Assembly.

"We all agreed that those services that everyone benefits from should be paid for first," Borough Manager John Duffy said.

The question is how much of the roughly $500,000, if any, will go to the cities of Palmer and Wasilla. Green, at Wasilla's request, initiated an expansion of the list of allowable expenses.

Where should

the money go?

Despite years of disagreement, the 911 players had some things in common on the priority lists they exchanged last week in preparation for today's meeting.

Everyone agrees, for example, that communication between the dispatch centers is mutually beneficial. If a Palmer dispatcher needs to transfer a call to Wasilla, she has to transmit all the information over the phone.

With a data-transmission line, the dispatcher will be able to send the location of a call and even driving directions with the push of a button. It will cost around $200,000, Brodigan said.

"It will be of equal benefit to both the city of Palmer and the city of Wasilla," Brodigan said.

Wasilla Police Chief Don Savage noted that the process of acquiring the line has taken a year and a half so far.

As for the Wasilla-contracted troopers, equipment is at the top of their list, too - first for the boroughwide upgrade and second for the data-transmission line.

The AST list also includes obtaining "sufficient … call takers and dispatchers" at both centers, dispatcher training and a contract for an audit of the enhanced-911 fund use.

Finally, the troopers suggest an independent audit of e-911 funds, Casanovas explained, "rather than rely on borough resources to do audits when they have the time." Wasilla also mentions an "annual audit of funds" in its priority-one subheading of infrastructure.

Paying for dispatch

with 911 funds

The borough has always spent e-911 funds "only

on system expenses," according to Brodigan - distinguishing clearly between the call-taker and the dispatcher.

"We have been diligently guarding the e-911 revenue," he said.

That's because in large dispatch centers, the person who answers the 911 call shunts information to another person, who dispatches emergency responders.

Yet at the Valley dispatch centers in Palmer and Wasilla, the 911 call-taker and the dispatcher are the same person.

This year, the city of Wasilla had news for the borough and Palmer: In 2000, the Alaska Legislature apparently reworded 911 legislation so that the dispatcher and the call-taker could be considered the same person - meaning that, effectively, 911 funds can be used to cover dispatch expenses. This year, the pending legislation includes an amendment specifically combining the two roles for budgetary purposes.

"That basic interpretation was new to us," Brodigan said.

Palmer City Manager Tom Healy concurred.

Brodigan's first priority for the 911 system is the equipment necessary to locate cell phones.

"It will make emergency services much more efficient," he said.

Boatright agreed: "We're singing off the same sheet of music," he said.

Green, at the request of Wasilla, initiated the expansion of the list of allowable expenses. That city's state-of-the-art dispatch center has been so far funded entirely with federal money. Although Wasilla is part of the borough-wide 911 system, the upgrades will happen in the Palmer dispatch center, where MATCOM is based. Wasilla felt left out, and Green agreed.

"I'm not concerned with the borough misusing money. They're just not sharing Š with the city of Wasilla," she said.

At the suggestion that Palmer is getting special treatment, however, Brodigan and Healy both demurred.

"I think that's unfounded," Brodigan said.

The borough has never allotted Palmer any of its own money for its dispatch equipment.

Houston Mayor Dale Adams is looking for money to relieve some of

the roughly $10,000 he

pays Wasilla for dispatch services.

"The three cities should get some of that money," he said.

Palmer, which has its own dispatchers to feed, also is not opposed to putting some e-911 money toward dispatch - after the necessary equipment is purchased.

"It's going to boil down to whether there's any money left after these primary expenses," Healy said.

"It looks like our priorities are very similar," said Wasilla Mayor Dianne M. Keller in one interview.

"The devil, as in anything, is in the details," said Dennis Brodigan, the borough's public safety director, in another.

"I'd really like to see a much greater level of cooperation," Palmer Police Chief George Boatright said.

Contact Kate Golden at

352-2284 or kate.golden@

frontiersman.com.