The Henry County government is responsible for making sure someone answers the phone whenever 9-1-1 is dialed here.
Local leaders have to take action in the next few months to make sure the Henry County 911 Dispatch Center has people to answer those emergency calls and equipment that works.
The current 911 equipment has failed twice in the past week.
System failures
The Henry County Dispatch Center went down around 4:30 a.m. last Saturday, June 17.
"For four hours, we lost our 911 office," Director Butch Baker told the Henry County Council Thursday. "We lost all the 911 phones, administrative lines... The back up phones for the 911 system in Henry County, they didn't work either. Everything went down."
Baker said the department's technical support, who was out of town that weekend, was able to access the system remotely and start the repair process.
"We did get the phones transferred to Delaware County," Baker said. "Delaware County took our 911 calls for us."
The radio system still worked while the phones were down. Delaware County was able to use the radios to relay local calls to the Henry County dispatchers.
"The best we could tell, we didn't miss a 911 call at 4:30 in the morning. It got transferred up there pretty quick," Baker told the council. "But the potential is there."
A second incident happened Tuesday when a piece of equipment "glitched" and pushed out the wrong voltage.
"It glitched and caused the fire radios to malfunction," Baker said.
Baker said the main issue in both situations was that the battery backup system failed. The backup is 27 years old and can no longer be serviced because new parts are no longer being made.
Baker received a quote in late 2022 to replace the system for $17,000. He has been waiting to see which direction the county government decided to go with long-term funding for the dispatch center.
"The bottom line is we had a glitch, we've done everything we could do to fix it. We're up and operational now. There is no guarantee how long it's going to last," Baker said. "They are putting Band-Aids and duck tap on it to keep it running."
Baker told the council he has enough money in his surplus 911 fund to cover the quote from 2022, as long as the price hasn't gone up since then.
The Henry County Council, by consensus, told Baker he could replace the equipment with the money he has available.
"I think that if it needs to be fixed, we should fix it," said council member Susan Huhn. "It seems like something we don't want to happen again, and it's kind of pushing off the inevitable."
Longer-term funding
Money is a limiting factor in the Henry County Dispatch Center.
Like all government departments, 911 needs money to buy new equipment and hire new employees.
Since the 911 system was first introduced to Henry County, the City of New Castle has carried the lion's share of the annual bill.
Historically, New Castle paid two-thirds of the cost each year and the Henry County government paid the remaining one-third.
Funds from the state helped cover the rest of those costs.
The State of Indiana cut those funds last year.
Baker warned the Henry County Commissioners in 2022 that his department would use up its reserve money by 2025. He brought a report to the Henry County Council in April outlining how a Public-Safety Answering Point (PSAP) income tax could make the dispatch center self-sustainable for the next decade.
County Council President Kenon Gray said a PSAP tax would bring in $1 million of new revenue to the 911 dispatch center.
Jason Semler of the firm Baker Tilly told the county council that any PSAP money could only be used for the Henry County 911 Dispatch Center. Money from other local income taxes (LITs), like the Public Safety LIT, can be moved around are are shared among all Henry County communities.
"I think what we are considering is unprecedented in the last 10 or 12 years for 911," Gray said Thursday. "It will help substantially."
The county council has the authority to pass a 0.1 percent PSAP tax on its own. If the county chose a higher rate, the decision would go to the Henry County Tax Council, a separate body made up of all municipal groups in the county.
The tax council member's votes are related to population size; Henry County and the City of New Castle make up the majority of the votes. Therefore, any PSAP tax rate higher than 0.1 percent would need approved by the Henry County Council and the New Castle City Council.
The county council members considered additional rates of 0.11 and 0.12 percent Thursday evening.
Council member Shannon Thom said the 0.12 percent income tax rate would take in more money from taxpayers than needed to cover expenses beyond 2036.
"That tells me that that 0.12 is way too high of a tax rate, in my opinion," Thom said Thursday.
The discussion then centered on a rate of either 0.10 or 0.11.
Thom motioned to pass a 0.11 percent tax. Kyle Allen seconded. The vote was 4-2, with Gray and Huhn voting no. Member Harold Griffin was not present at Thursday's council meeting.
The next step of the PSAP process will be a public hearing at 6 p.m. July 27 in the Henry County Courthouse involving the Henry County Council and the New Castle City Council.