Officials in Meade County dedicated and cut the ribbon on the county’s new E911 Center on Friday (10/13) in Brandenburg.
The approximate $1 million project was funded with American Rescue Plan Act funds. This new state of the art facility features a central 24 hour call center that allows four telecommunicators known as dispatchers, to work various tasks from answering phone calls for assistance to providing police, fire and EMS with critical timely information simultaneously. The 911 center serves over 30,000 citizens and averages over 100 emergency/non-emergency calls daily and dispatches for numerous agencies to include the Meade County Sheriff’s Office, Brandenburg Police Department, Muldraugh Police Department, Animal Control, Coroner’s Office, Meade County Constables, Meade County EMS, Meade County Emergency Management, and eight county fire departments. The center also houses the county’s Emergency Management Agency with an adjoining room for the Emergency Operation Center that can but used for training and meetings during non emergency events.
The new 911 center features secure offices for sensitive data and allows for dispatchers to monitor various security feeds. The new facility offers instant access for Emergency Management to communicate critical information straight from the Emergency Operations Center to the dispatchers. The Emergency Operations Center is a room that multiple agencies will assemble in to relay and gather real time information to coordinate a response and recovery during a disaster. The can also be used as a training and meeting space as needed during non emergency situations.
With technology rapidly evolving, the Meade County E911 center offers callers the option to text 911 by simply putting in the numbers “911” into the call number field and then text your emergency. The center offers assistance for the hearing impaired by using TDD through our phone system. Staff are trained to provide emergency medical dispatching that involves pre arrival instructions to include Telephone CPR (T-CPR).
This new facility also houses the Meade County Addressing Coordinator and GIS Technician which maintains data for the county layered map used by dispatcher and various county agencies. This center is also backed up by a standby a smaller call center in Muldraugh in the event the main center becomes disabled.
Meade County 911 Director Jeremy Miller said, “One thing that we ask is to always stay on the phone if you accidentally dial 911. If you don’t, then we will attempt to call you back and if you don’t answer, then we will notify a police unit about the call.”
You can watch the entire ribbon cutting ceremony in our “On Demand” section.
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