Sebastian County sets next step for 911-system study

FORT SMITH — Officials in Sebastian County have chosen to take the next step in examining the county’s 911 system in light of state legislation that was passed last year.

The Sebastian County 911 Board unanimously approved a motion to move forward with a more in-depth study to look at consolidating public-service answering points during its meeting Thursday. This comes after the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials conducted a “pre-consolidation review” for the county’s three answering points this week.

In essence, public-service answering points are call centers for individual emergency service units, including police, fire and ambulance.

After the meeting, Sebastian County Judge David Hudson said the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials had been requested by Crawford and Saline counties to do this preliminary assessment for them in the past. From there, these governmental entities each chose to proceed to the next step, what Hudson called having “a full contract review.”

Hudson said the 911 board will use the contracts that the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials has with Crawford and Saline counties, along with other documents pertaining to the Sebastian County 911 system and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, to evaluate how to approach its own project. The board will meet again Feb. 27 to talk about this and decide what components to send to the association to get a proposed price for a contract from them.

The members of the Sebastian County Intergovernmental Cooperation Council, Hudson said, will be invited to attend the Feb. 27 meeting to listen to the board’s discussion so that they are fully aware of what it is doing.

“The legislation that was passed, [Arkansas] Act 660 of 2019, encourages us to look at the number of public-service answering points we have in the state of Arkansas and targeting reducing them,” Hudson said. “And so, this is a proactive step on our part as units of local government to engage outside professionals to help us review this, and then that information will be reported back to the state 911 board.”

Stephen J. Wisely, senior business development coordinator for the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, gave a presentation to the Sebastian County 911 Board during its meeting Tuesday. Among other topics, he talked about the pre-consolidation review itself, benefits and challenges of consolidation, different models of consolidation, and important matters for the board to take into consideration.

Wisely went on to conduct interviews and discussions with relevant stakeholders, observe operations of existing facilities that may be involved in the consolidation, and review relevant documents and information related to current operations, governance structure and funding.

On Thursday, Wisely presented the board with the findings of his review. Hudson said Wisely went to Sebastian County’s three public-service answering points: the Fort Smith Police Department, the Sebastian County sheriff’s office and Fort Smith EMS. He also toured the Sebastian County Emergency Operations Center in Fort Smith.

“To summarize, what you’ve got is working pretty good for you,” Wisely said. “There are areas that need some attention as you decide what you want to do in terms of moving forward [on] consolidation. You’ve got an awful lot of opportunities here. The time is right to do it.”

Assistant County Administrator Jeff Turner said Sebastian County spent $5,000 for the pre-consolidation review conducted by Wisely.