Dispatchers officially moved into the new Emergency Operations Center at the Administration Building Friday morning after a 10-day move. Many pieces of equipment were identified as being damaged by lightning, including four computers, one multi-coupler, one associate processing card, one data card, one printer, one power supply and two modems. Director Andi Rice said these items will be turned into the county's insurance and should be reimbursable equipment.

The move was overseen by Rayfield Communications and some minor programming errors in the following radio equipment were identified:

• Westphalia Fire Department personnel were being paged off the main transmitter rather than their repeater, which would have affected their radio coverage.
• Linn Fire Protection District was being paged off a mutual aid channel, as opposed to its own channel.
• The Belle Police Department was not programmed for narrowband even though they have a narrowband license. If this would have been identified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), they could have been fined.
• Multiple transmitters were not aligned to manufactured specifications, with LFPD and Argyle Fire Department being the worst.

Depending on the weather, the tower and grounding for both the courthouse and the Administration buildings will be completed this week, Rice added. The grounding bid was approved by the Commission on May 19 for $11,630, which will come out of the 911 sales tax.

Rayfield Communications also recommended an additional surge protector for the courthouse to be installed as soon as possible. Those costs will be paid for out of the county's building and grounds fund.

As far as the costs for the move, the county hasn't paid any bills yet, but the cost to move the 911 equipment stays the same at $17,846, with $10,000 of that amount being paid for with AmerenUE funds. A cost of $12,648 for the mandatory computer upgrades is still necessary but the three computers in that quote may now be paid for with insurance, bringing that figure down to approximately $6,000, Rice noted.