Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: WILLIAM FREEBAIRN
Western Massachusetts edged closer to having a comprehensive emergency telephone network last week when a state committee approved plans to bring dozens of communities on-line with enhanced 911 service next year.
The Statewide Emergency Telecommunications Board voted to move ahead with E-911 service in several more cities and towns. A number of Western Massachusetts communities had plans approved but no timetable set for their systems.
The new system will allow callers statewide to dial 911 instead of local police and fire numbers. When a call comes in, it will automatically display the location of the caller.
To participate, towns must provide updated street lists to New England Telephone.
The law establishing the enhanced 911 system was passed in 1990. The estimated $48 million price tag will be paid through charges on telephone users who make more than 10 calls a month to directory assistance. The directory assistance charge is 34 cents per call.
Glenn A. Roach, executive director of the statewide board, said it has voted to put nine groups of communities on the road to E-911 by the middle of next year. The first group, in eastern Massachusetts, should be on line by January, he said.
Several Berkshire County communities are scheduled to start up next, and 14 Hampshire and Hampden County towns organized by the state police in Northampton will have their dispatch center on-line later next year. The towns are Chester, Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Granville, Hatfield, Huntington, Montgomery, Pelham, Plainfield, Russell, Westhampton, Williamsburg and Worthington.
A dispatch center is being built next to the state police barracks in Northampton and will handle cellular telephone calls also.
A state police spokesman said some of those towns could be excluded from the center’s start-up in late February. Maj. Donald Cody, based in Framingham, said a few towns, which he would not name, have failed to assemble the database of addresses as required.
In addition to those towns with a date approaching for their E-911 implementation, several will be placed in the line-up at the statewide board’s January meeting. Amherst, Belchertown, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Northampton, Southampton, Ware, Agawam, East Longmeadow, Hampden, Longmeadow, Ludlow, Southwick, Springfield, West Springfield, Westfield, Wilbraham, Adams, North Adams, Clarksburg and Williamstown probably will be scheduled to start in E-911 after the middle of 1994.
The entire state should have the E-911 system by the end of 1995, according to Roach.