STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) -- The process of combining the Portage County and City of Stevens Point emergency dispatch centers had a small delay Monday. Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Kontos says Stevens Point dispatchers had to stay in their old facility one more day due to technical concerns. “There was a little glitch with the phone system, and we wanted to make sure before we brought them over, brought the city into the county dispatch center, that we could assure that we would have 100% continuity of operations. We just didn’t have that confidence level (Monday). We had to do a little bit more work with some wiring.”
Kontos says this first step placed the staff and existing equipment from both agencies in the same room yesterday. We are bringing the (Stevens Point city) dispatch systems, including the radio, the paging system, the phone trunks, all of that will be coming over and being housed in the county communications center, so essentially, the assets that were in the city’s center are co-located with ours.”
City staff can now do what they normally do while training with county staff.
Kontos says once this phase is completed, Portage County will be installing the enhanced 9-1-1 capabilities and some new equipment approximately August 4th.
Once that new equipment is installed, Kontos says the 9-1-1 system will be more easily upgraded as technology changes. It will also give the public to send texts, photos, and short videos to 9-1-1 dispatchers if necessary.