No decision yet on Kane Co. 911 board
The Kane County Board will decide next month whether to set up a Kane County 911 communications board to govern its 911 emergency communications center.
The decision came at a special meeting Tuesday after reviewing a report about what to do with its 911 center.
The KaneComm board - which would report to the judicial and public safety committee of the county board - would be responsible for budgeting and administration of the county's dispatch center. The dispatch center serves the sheriff's office and several towns that contract with it.
Presently, the county board is responsible for the operation, but it was budgeted through the sheriff's office until last year, said board Chairman Karen McConnaughay.
The move is recommended by a consultant that studied the county's present system, as it prepares for moving out of its old quarters at the site of the old Kane County sheriff's office and adult jail on Fabyan Parkway in Geneva. This month, the sheriff moved into new quarters on the Kane County Judicial Center campus off Route 38 in St. Charles. The jail will open there next month.
The KaneComm board could help figure out where a new radio transmitter should be placed, among other tasks. The main 911 radio transmission tower is at the Fabyan Parkway site, with another one in Plato Township and several receiver/booster sites throughout the county.
Possible sites for a new tower include the Kane County transportation department headquarters on Burlington Road in western St. Charles, which already has a 200-plus foot tower; another site in eastern Geneva; on top of the 22-story Fox Island Apartments (formerly Leland Hotel) building in downtown Aurora; and Pigeon Hill Park in Aurora.
Other recommendations from the consultant include raising the 911 fees charged to land-line and cell phone users in areas covered by the Kane County Emergency Telephone System Board. The ETSB doles out those monies to the Kane County, Aurora, Montgomery and TriComm dispatch centers. The charges now are 50 cents a month for land lines and 75 cents for cell phones. The consultants recommend raising the fees to $1. Voters would have to approve raising those fees.
McConnaughay said she couldn't support a fee increase unless the other 911 centers in the county - including Elgin, South Elgin, and QuadComm - were willing to talk about consolidating with the Kane 911 center. "I could not in good conscience think about doing that when all six of the other dispatch centers refuse to talk about consolidation for efficiencies. The cost associated with providing 911 technology is unbelievable," she said.