ADDRESSING INCOMPLETE FOR NEW E911; SCOTT INFORMATION LACKING

MORLEY -- Half the residences in Scott County are either without addresses or were incorrectly addressed by the company that is mapping the county for the Enhanced 911 system, said Joe Burton, Scott County E911 supervisor.

Burton said he is having to re-visit more than 1,500 residences in the county that have incomplete information on their address cards, and fill in the blanks. He said another 360 suburban residences were incorrectly addressed.

He said many home occupants were listed simply as `current residents' when a name and address were available on their mailboxes.

"The card should have had someone's name and address on it," Burton said. "Personally, I think they didn't do their job."

In all, about 1,860 of the 3,500 Scott County addresses will have to be redone by either the company, Network Design Engineering of Little Rock, Ark., or the county, Burton said.

Burton said the E911 system has been running since September. Because of the address problem, dispatchers have had to take additional time with callers to verify address, phone numbers and directions to their home.

Network Design was hired for between $150,000 and $180,000 in July, 1996, by Scott and New Madrid counties to map and address residences for a dual-county E911 system, Burton said. While Scott County is looking at a 50-percent error rate, New Madrid County is at about 20 percent.

"That's still higher than the 90-percent accuracy they guaranteed us in the contract, but it can be lived with," Burton said.

Alan Miller, vice president of Network Design, said the company is not finished with its attempts to contact omitted residences. He said the company has an eight-step process for contacting absent residents and only three of those steps have been completed.

Miller said Network Design field workers visited every residence in both counties. If no one answered their knocks, a reply card was hung on their doors. If those cards were not sent in, letters were mailed to the homes.

Miller said the company will begin writing residents again after the telephone company gives them a report listing incomplete records.

"After that, the telephone company will give us a final error file and we will make three attempts to call every person on that error file," he said.

Miller said he knows Scott County is not happy with the time it is taking to complete this project. "We're not pleased with the amount of time it's taking either," he said.

Miller said he blames both his company, and factors outside the company, for the delay. He declined to comment further, "I don't want to start casting blame on people."

Miller said Network Design has completed 95 similar projects in the United States and hopes to finish this one before the end of the year.

Burton said besides the mapping, all the other aspects of the new system are running fine.