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County puts money for program to good use
Published October 1, 2009
As the retired Brazoria County 911 Coordinator, I would like to respond to a letter from Annette Oden in The Facts, Aug. 3, concerning the use of the funds received from our cell phones for dialing 911.
I have not read the bill pertaining to the mandatory evacuations but I do know how the money is used in Texas. The state organization that oversees the 911 program is the Commission on State Emergency Communications. The 911 service fees go into the state budget and are then allocated through CSEC to 911 programs across the state. The legislation requires that they only can be spent on 911.
CSEC passes this money for our area to the Houston-Galveston Area Council Regional 911 committee and as a member of that Committee, we create the annual budget for the 13 surrounding counties. The money was used for public education materials for the school children such as crayons, coloring books, pencils and several types of gadgets with the 911 “Reddy Fox” symbol.
I would pick these materials up and have them for the local emergency service providers interested to have at their functions, and some teachers asked for the materials and passed them out in their classes. We also provided the County Library System with thousands of items for use in their summer reading programs. The money also is used for the printing of maps and purchase of atlas map books used for emergency service providers to help make response time better.
The county recieved a set amount — each year it increases — to pay for the GIS map used by the Sheriff’s Office, cities and several other county departments. The money has helped to provide updated equipment for the five PSAPS that services the 911 answering dispatcher locations in the county.
When I retired from the county, we were in the process of locating addresses for all cell phone towers in the county to help with the Phase II of 911 program that will provide faster response for 911 calls out in the rural areas.
Penny Goode is a West Columbia resident.
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