Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

9-1-1 system is almost ready; county always short on funds

Nevada County will always be wanting because it's small, said Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown.

Brown, speaking at the annual Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce meeting, said the county has about 700 miles of road needing to be paved and maintained.

"We're doing the best we can with what we've got," he said, "and I hope people will understand we're trying."

County officials, he said, aren't allowed to come out and voice opposition to proposed Amendment 3. Brown was told this by representatives from the Association of Arkansas Counties.

But, he said, if the issue passes it could be devastating for the county. Nevada County is "maxed out" on its millage for both general revenue and the road and bridge budget.

"If this passes," Brown said, "I don't know where we'll get money to operate on. The state will eventually put in new taxes, but the problem will be what to do in the meantime."

Brown introduced Emmet Mayor Dale Booker to the gathering. Booker is the 9-1-1 coordinator for the county, and gave an update on the progress of the 9-1-1 emergency system.

"We've been working on this for two years," he said. "This is how long Southwestern Bell said it would take. We started by readdressing the entire county, then made sure all current phone numbers had a 9-1-1 address."

This was followed by redesigning and building a new dispatch center at the Nevada County Sheriff's Office to house the electronic equipment required.

The radios and computers were replaced, and, he said, the only thing lacking is getting SWB to install the 9-1-1 equipment. This should be done in the next three or four weeks.

The next project, he said, is getting an electronic map of the county built. Once this is done, the 9-1-1 system will be able to locate cell phones in the county by latitude and longitude.