ALBANY — Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced $10 million in grant funding Friday to strengthen local emergency response operations across the state through improvements to 911 response and emergency service dispatch operations. The funding is administered by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services through the Public Safety Answering Points Operations Grant.
Nancy VanWinkle, director of the center, proposed the idea to employees about getting a dog.
“I had seen, and my assistant had seen, different agencies using dogs for dispatch,” she said. VanWinkle added that she doesn’t know of another 911 center in Arkansas with an emotional-support dog.
“When we answer the phone, 80 percent of our calls are not somebody having a good day,” VanWinkle said. “We hear people take their last breaths. We hear moms screaming because their children aren’t breathing, or people who hear noises outside of their houses and are scared — they don’t know if someone is coming in.
The decision to change the way the 911 center is funded was precipitated by an “untenable financial situation” according to Commissioner Andy Kostielney, who serves as president of the three member executive board for the 911 center. The other two members are Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
The argument over how to fund the 911 center dates back more than five years ago, when a new state law required counties to have no more than two Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP). In 2014, South Bend, Mishawaka and St. Joseph County entered into an interlocal agreement that split the cost of the consolidated center.
FORT SMITH, Ark. (KFSM) — At the end of August dramatic 911 audio of a Fort Smith woman who died in flash flooding was released. Now another woman is coming forward, saying her fate could have been the same.
Janet Smith says she can’t stop thinking about what she calls a near-death experience on August 24, the same day Debbie Stevens died when her car was swept away by flash floods while delivering newspapers.
9-1-1 Director Eric Raymond explained to the committee the ETSB met Wednesday and it still doesn’t have a budget to submit. There’s still questions on how much funding will come from each of the entities for joint dispatch. It’s requesting $167,500 be provided from the county, city of Watseka and ETSB. He said there’s concern with setting a number because the telecommunicators’ contracts will go into negotiations this year “and that number could go anywhere”.
