County dispatch system now fully implemented

Three years and nearly $1 million after the process started, Putnam County 911 Dispatch is now fully operating on a new software system.

Dispatch Director Dave Costin reported to the Putnam County Commissioners on Monday that the installation and implementation phase of the InterAct software is now complete. He sought permission by the commissioners to move into the maintenance phase of the agreement with InterAct.

Costin said the new software was actually installed in May, but that did not end the process.

Instead, 911 Dispatch, along with other county emergency agencies, went through a troubleshooting phase in order for all concerned parties to be correctly trained and comfortable with the new system.

Any problems agencies were having with the conversion were submitted to Costin and solutions were found.

With resulotion reached to all the “trouble tickets” submitted to Costin, the 911 Board recently recommended moving forward to the maintenance phase, a recommendation the commissioners followed on Monday.

Costin spoke glowingly of the new system, which was touted as a major upgrade that will interface with the dispatching systems of the Indiana State Police and more than half of Indiana counties, all of which use InterAct as well.

This allows for information to be shared across the state. Officials with InterAct are hopeful that sharing across state lines will be available in the coming years.

He also said the old, outdated system sometimes took 20-30 seconds after a call was answered for dispatchers to see all the information they needed.

So far with InterAct, the information pops up immediately.

Coming up with funding for the $960,702.42 project involved both a $960,000 loan from North Salem State Bank as well as the county implementing a new County Adjusted Gross Income Tax (CAGIT) for public safety at a rate of .25 percent.

The new CAGIT funds will bring an estimated $1.5 million into the county annually, to be distributed to Putnam County and its six municipalities, with the county receiving around $900,000.

The burden on county taxpayers will be around $70 per $30,000 of income.

Costin reported that a couple of unforeseen issues in the implementation made the project come in at about $8,000 over budget, but he paid for these from the department budget.

In the maintenance phase of the agreement, the first year will be covered by a warranty. After that, maintenance will cost $80,000 annually. While this figure was only $50,000 with the previous vendor, the new agreement also includes software upgrades, which was not the case in the past.