9-1-1 needs public to update information

WINSTON COUNTY - Although Winston County’s new computer-aided dispatch system went online November 10, to provide more timely information to first responders, the system will only be effective if the public has given their correct and updated addresses to dispatchers.
The Winston County E-9-1-1 Board is sending out an urgent message to the public to update their correct address and contact information so emergency response will arrive in a timely manner when every second counts, stressed Winston County Interim E-9-1-1 Director Wayne Collins.
“Seconds count in all emergencies.  It doesn’t matter,” Collins stressed.  “Seconds can mean life or death.”
Winston E-9-1-1 Vice Chairman Tom Grubbs had been checking the E-9-1-1 records recently, finding some information had not been updated, which can be critical to timely emergency response.
“I have been doing a check on some of these records at 9-1-1,” Grubbs stated, “I have found myself in error twice. 
“I got rid of my landline phone two or three years ago.  I looked in here (on these records) and that’s the only one that is still there--my landline. I have not updated it,” Grubbs admitted.
“I looked on my road, and it looked like half the people who live on my road have the same problem,” Grubbs added.
When the new E-9-1-1 addresses were implemented several years ago, E-9-1-1 stopped at each residence and made an update of addresses into their system, Grubbs recalled.
“Now if anything has changed after that, you have to give it to us because we don’t know,” Grubbs pointed out.
Residents who change addresses or do work to their homes or structures on their property that alter the building(s) appearance need to contact the Winston County E-9-1-1 office  at (205) 489-8911.
“If you have added to the building.  If you have changed the color.  If you have gotten rid of your contacts.  If you’ve gotten rid of your landline and you have a cell phone.  If something happens and the only number we have is the landline you got rid of, we can’t contact you,” Grubbs continued.
“You need to update your phone records, especially the changes you have made to the residence,” Grubbs emphasized.
“If your houses catches on fire and something is going on there that we need to contact you in a hurry, if we don’t have a (correct) number, we can’t get in touch with you,” he further pointed out.
Those who relocate to Winston County also need to call the E-9-1-1 office and provide all updates regarding the address and the caller contact information, Grubbs indicated.
Another problem being seen by E-9-1-1 board members is that people may own property, then sell it to another individual without contacting E-9-1-1, Grubbs continued.
Therefore, if a call comes in from that address, dispatchers can only go by the identification of the property’s previous owner, if that is all that is listed, E-9-1-1 board members pointed out.
“The phone number is the critical thing,” Grubbs stressed. “Looking at some files, I see some old phone numbers that I know are no longer in existence.  People dropping landlines to go to cell phones and they don’t think to call in.”