911 Board Hears Concerns Over Ambulance Coverage

The County's telecommunicator supervisor, Tina Daniels, asked whether members of the board want copies of her reports that she submits to the county board's ambulance oversight committee. Daniels said the reports document when the rigs operated by Abbott Ambulance are all out of the county.

Abbott does have backup service provided by Jasper County Ambulance Service when its units are out of the county, but it takes time for the Jasper units to reach Effingham County. The members Tuesday said there was an incident when there was no coverage of the county for a half-hour

911 board members said they'd like to receive Daniels' reports to make them more aware of the situation.

Concerns were also voiced over still not having a monitoring system for the Abbott rigs. Abbott has a system for monitoring its units, but it's not the same system as the Spillman system used locally. Abbott had indicated it was working on a system that would let the local dispatchers monitor the whereabouts of the Abbott rigs, but Daniels said Abbott indicates the system is still in the testing mode.

The 911 Board also discussed a new agreement with the city and county of Effingham on what to pay those entities for dispatching services. 911 is currently paying $93,820 annually to both the City and the County.