LISBON — Columbiana County’s updated Next Generation 911 isn’t expected to go live now until the end of February.

Originally, Wednesday was announced as the start-up date, but county Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director and 911 Coordinator Brian Rutledge said that’s no longer the case.

“Due to some networking complexities, we are looking at Feb. 26,” he said when contacted Wednesday.

According to Rutledge, both the state of Ohio and the vendor Comtech are telling county officials “we’re not leaving February without it,” referring to the new NG 911 system.

The county was one of several pilot counties that previously went on the next generation 911 system which is now going statewide, requiring an upgrade of the county’s current equipment and software.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday that Washington and Monroe counties have become the first in the state to fully implement the new NG 911. According to the press release, the governor made the adoption of NG911 across Ohio a priority of his 2024-2025 executive budget “to improve emergency response times and ultimately save lives.”

“Every second counts when we are talking about saving lives,” DeWine said in the press release. “Next Generation 911 makes emergency services more efficient, especially in the rural areas of Ohio where it is critical to have strong and reliable communication infrastructure.”

According to the press release, “NG911 technology provides citizens with advanced communication capabilities when calling for emergency services, such as text messaging. NG911 technology also supports more efficient emergency management by reducing the number of call transfers between 911 call centers with more precise identification of the location of callers using cell phones.”

Washington and Monroe counties were among 10 pilot counties which originally joined NG911, including Columbiana, Athens, Carroll, Champaign, Hardin, Harrison, Morgan, and Union counties.

The press release noted that Ohio’s operating budget for 2024-2025 included $46 million in infrastructure costs for NG911. The statewide system is expected to be operational this spring, with any counties that have not migrated to the system having five years to do it.

During the 911 Program Review Committee meeting in November, Rutledge reported the state purchased $324,000 worth of equipment for the new system for Columbiana County, covering most of the cost for the upgrade. He estimated the county’s cost at just under $30,000 to purchase headsets and second monitors for each of the five Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and the county Emergency Management Agency, which serves as a back-up location for answering calls.

Dispatchers were trained on the new equipment last week and Rutledge received a lot of good feedback from them, noting the new system is more user friendly. He said there will be some networking work at each the PSAP sites, noting the county is unique due to the PSAP setup. PSAPs are located at the county sheriff’s office and police departments in Salem, East Liverpool, East Palestine and Columbiana.

The county has had the texting capability for a few years, with people able to text 911 to get help. The county gets a few texts, but not as many as people would think.

He did explain that when there’s a 911 hangup or misdial, dispatchers can text the number back.

With the new system, he said dispatchers will have the ability to send a link to the callers to get photos or video from the scene of an incident.

Rutledge said the big plus will be information sharing when all the surrounding counties are on the state system.

Testing of the new system will start next week, along with testing of the CAD and Mapping systems before the new system goes live.

“Everyone’s looking forward to it, it’s going to be a big change, but we’re looking forward to it,” Rutledge said.

The next meeting of the 911 Program Review Committee is set for 1 p.m. Feb. 6 at the county EMA office in Lisbon.

mgreier@mojonews.com