LEESVILLE, LA — On any given day, the Vernon Parish Communications District E-911 receives from 12 to more than 60 calls from parish residents.

Some are misdials; some are pranks. Most are not. Within seconds of receiving a valid emergency call, the dispatchers can have first responders en route to help. Despite a recent shake-up earlier this year that saw the system switched from being run by the city of Leesville to being run by the Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Office, the 10-person crew continues to meet the parish’s emergency communications needs.

And there are plenty more challenges ahead as E-911 irons out expenses and revenue, said Vernon Parish Chief Deputy Calvin Turner.

“We inherited something with a zero balance,” he said, a fact which did not prevent expenses from piling up.

“We’re barely making ends meet,” Turner added. With an income based solely on telephone and cellular phone surcharges, the district’s revenue is relatively fixed, though it fluctuates dramatically since some carriers submit the surcharges monthly and others submit them quarterly. The district is still learning what its annual budget is.

Take the maintenance of E-911′s sensitive equipment: consoles, computers, telephones and radios. Though it’s the most up-to-date system possible, it’s not without its challenges. An expensive maintenance contract is one of them. A nonexistent service agreement earlier in the year had the district facing an impossible repair bill of more than $30,000.

However, Howard Hudgens, director of the parish’s Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, spent countless hours on the phone negotiating a more palatable contract: $1,500 a month through the end of 2012.

Though the system is the most up-to-date possible, the staff have yet to be trained on how to utilize all of its advantages, said Hudgens.

“If we can get the training and use the equipment to capacity, we’ll be much better off,” he said. That lack of training is one of several issues that have arisen over the last few months.

Since taking over in January, Hudgens has secured a generator for power outages and is working on getting not only the training his staff needs, but upgrades for the computer system as well as a security system for the building, with the help of funds from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOSHEP).

In addition, he’s hoping that mapping for the whole parish will be done by the end of the year.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff we’re working,” he said. “It’s going to make it better for everyone in the parish.”

Another problem still in the process of being fixed is the parish’s addressing system. Some residences in the parish have the wrong address. To complicate matters, there’s no way of ferreting those addresses out. Instead, the parish must adopt a wait-and-see stance. The wrong addresses surface as new construction goes up, or worse, when an emergency happens.

Some of the problems exist within Leesville, such as in the Lee Hills area, said Turner. A correct addressing system would have all odd-numbered addresses on one side of a street, with even-numbered addresses on the other side. However, in some areas in the parish, odds and evens aren’t necessarily on opposite sides of the street. In fact, one subdivision had two houses with the same address.

Though making the change causes residents a hardship, it’s unavoidable, said Turner.

“People have been upset,” he said. “We understand that, but it can’t be helped.”

Turner also encouraged all parish residents to display their addresses prominently.

“We run into this every day, with first responders not being able to locate a home,” he said. Mobile home parks are especially in need of clear lot number markings.

“These are things people don’t think about until an emergency happens,” he said. “”This parish has grown. Ambulance drivers aren’t necessarily local.”

Now, as the first year begins to wind down with Vernon Parish at the helm of E-911, Turner said he’s fully aware that other issues may continue to crop up. But he’s confident that the E-911 staff, with Hudgens’ guidance, can weather through them.

“We’re finding and correcting things as we go,” Turner said.

In the meantime, the 10 workers, all fully capable of taking your emergency call, are on standby, in case you need them.

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