Jamestown, ND (KCSi-T.V. News) — Stutsman County, officials were invited to share 9-1-1 information with Valley City and Barnes County officials.
Stutsman County Emergency Manager, Jerry Bergquist told KCSi-T.V. News, that Stutsman County CEO, Casey Bradley, and he attended a session on Thursday (Jun 28, 2012), in Valley City.
Bergquist said the session including explaining how the communications center in Jamestown operates, and the agreement in place between Jamestown and Stutsman County.
Bergquist also brought along a copy of the Joint Powers Agreement between Stutsman and Richland Counties, where the 9-1-1 operations will eventually be shared, when new state of the art equipment is purchased and installed in Jamestown.
Bergquist said the door is open, if Barnes County decides to join the Stutsman and Richland County 9-1-1 operations, based in Jamestown. In that event, Stutsman and Barnes Counties could back each other up, in 9-1-1 services, if one or the other fails.
He added bid specifications will be ready soon, to go to the bidding process for the new 9-1-1 equipment. It’s possible the new equipment could be manufactured in early August this year, and installed in Jamestown by the end of this year.

 
A federal mandate for redundancy has a deadline in July of 2013, to have digital equipment in place.

Bergquist pointed out that in order to pass along Richland County emergency calls to responders in Richland County, new radio equipment will have to be installed.
He said the plans for the project will be a multi-year phasing scenario.
He said the interfacing system, while expensive to establish, will save both counties money in the long run.

He pointed out that Barnes County officials took the information under advisement, and did not indicated to him, whether Barnes County or Valley City would have definite interest in joining Stutsman and Richland Counties in providing 9-1-1 services as a joint venture.