Upgrades leading to better efficiency and accuracy of 911 services will soon be happening in Howell County and the surrounding area, thanks to grant funding appropriated through the American Rescue Plan Act and approved by the Missouri General Assembly and Gov. Michael Parson, supporting improvement projects in 65 counties in all.
Howell County 911 Director and Missouri 911 Directors Association Region 6 Representative Nate Franks explained the upgrades and updates will improve response because those calling from a cell phone can be located more accurately. As it is, the cell phone signal bounces from tower to tower and may not show the caller's exact location. Once upgraded, the location shown will be where the caller is actually located, not where the tower is.
It will also allow for the option of texting 911, expansion of services and faster call processing, Franks said. There are six area counties in the grant, including Howell, Douglas, Ozark, Wright and Texas.
In any of those counties, calls will soon be able to be rerouted quickly, helping everyone in the area, he added, with the end goal of getting the entire state linked into the expansion.
He noted that, at this time, there are areas in the Ozarks region, like Shannon County, that only have basic 911 services. "This will affect and help all in the area," he added.
The networks will allow for the seamless transition of 911 calls and information sharing among call centers, Missouri 911 Service Board Executive Director Brian Maydwell said, allowing for life-saving services like 911 call rollover, a situation in which a citizen may otherwise be required to wait on hold until a call-taker is available. It also makes those counties compatible with future Next Generation 911 (NG911) services and connection to a statewide system if one is developed in the future, he noted.
Other counties that only have basic services are Bollinger, Carter, Ripley, Oregon and Wayne counties in southeast Missouri and Clark County in northeast Missouri. They are the last seven counties in Missouri where callers cannot be located when dialing 911 from their cell phones, and some of only about 2% in the United States still using only basic services, Maydwell added.
Currently those counties do not have 911 answering equipment, which means calls go to seven-digit lines where operators do not receive any information on callers or their locations, requiring them to describe those details verbally. Once these projects are completed, two multicounty regions will be interconnected and fully equipped with the technology needed to locate callers and accept text-to-911 messages, Maydwell explained.
The funds are five-year grants with Howell County getting $269,041.92 for NG911 out of a total of $959,713.35. The address portion of the grants will be about $69,855 for Howell County and $238,305 total, Franks disclosed.
“We are proud to have all Missourians on track to receive the modern 911 services they deserve and expect," Gov. Parson said. "These projects will provide lifesaving services to citizens and travelers across Missouri as well as help our first responders do their jobs even better when calls for assistance are made. We’re proud to do our part in helping improve emergency services in Missouri.”
Statewide, there will be nearly $16.6 million in grant funding for the projects. In conjunction, the Missouri 911 Service Board has funded 35 Geospatial Information System grants to create the maps and data needed to implement and deploy NG911, including funds going to Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark and Wright counties. Since the grant program was established in 2023, the board has disbursed $19.4 million to 80 counties, Maydwell added. It will help pay for the implementation of text-to-911, emergency medical dispatch prearrival instructions, improved mapping and interoperability and sharing of 911 services across counties.
It was made possible by the passage of Missouri House Bill 1456, signed into law by Parson in 2018.
Maydwell praised NG911 Implementation Manager Scott Cason and local 911 and county officials who presented the projects to the state board, as well as volunteer members of the governor-appointed 911 service board for their efforts to enhance 911 services.
