Central dispatch system requires alarm changes

Residents, businesses urged to contact service providers to change number

Residents and businesses in Forrest City with alarm systems need to contact their providers to make changes to the first responder numbers due to the new centralized dispatch system in St. Francis County.

"If you have a burglary alarm or a fire alarm protecting your structure and it is designed to call Forrest City police or fire departments or the county, the number has changed," Forrest City Fire Chief Shane Dallas explained during this morning’s weekly meeting of city department directors.

Residents and business owners will need to ask their alarm company to change their responder contact number to 870-594-6240, according to Dallas.

Dallas said the numbers will also eventually need to be changed for emergency medical services.

Dallas explained that due to the new centralized dispatch center for the area, business lines for the police department, 6333434, and fire department, 6331533, are not always guaranteed to get a person on the phone when someone calls.

"Nobody is there all the time due to it not operating like it has operated in the past," said Dallas. "You can't rely on somebody to be there all the time."

He continued, “If you have an alarm system, you need to contact the company and get them to change that number.”

Dallas said for all emergency situations, residents should continue to call 911, although non-emergency and business calls should be directed to the business lines at the departments.

"For years and years, it has been 3434 or 1533, but with this, we have that centralized system and that's where the calls need to come, because if not, it will result in a delay," explained Dallas of the change.

Dallas said dispatchers will be manning the centralized system at all times, which should help departments improve response times.

"Sometimes we are there and we'll answer it, but then we have to call out there and it just creates a time delay. We want to be as quick and efficient as possible," said Dallas.

Also during this morning’s meeting, directors were asked to provide Mayor Cedric Williams with a list of problems they have noticed in the city on State Highways 1 and 70.

“I have a meeting scheduled with ARDOT (Arkansas Department of Transportation) on Wednesday,” Williams told the group before asking them to email, or provide a typed list of problems in the city, such as state-owned ditches or potholes on statedowned highways that are in need of attention.

Water department director Edward Gregory said Highway 70 East near the Jordan’s convenience store has begun to “buckle” due to a water leak.

Gregory also made fellow directors aware of a sewer line near Izard Street that AT&T punctured when installing fiber lines.

Gregory also said a gas company still needs to make repairs from work on Rosebud and that work on the water department’s roof should begin soon.