AREA ON LOOKOUT FOR Y2K BUGS

Even though local officials, firefighters and police, medical personnel and utilities crews don't expect any Y2K-related glitches or disrupted services, they are still being cautious.

While most of the region will be ringing in 2000 with grand parties, several people will be working late New Year's Eve to fix any problems that might arise when the clock strikes midnight.

"As far as we know everything is compliant," said Terry Fulk, Project Impact coordinator for Cape Girardeau. "We're going to make those checks and be sure."

People worried about a Y2K bug are concerned that computers with time- and date-sensitive devices programmed to recognize two digits for dates would read 2000 as 00. If the computers fail to recognize the zeroes as dates, information could be lost.

Fulk said he doesn't expect any problems, but everyone wants to take the extra precaution.

Local governmental entities

Cape Girardeau County government won't be calling in staff for New Year's Eve. Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said county officials don't expect a Y2K disaster with their computers.

"We have been assured all of our stuff is OK," Jones said.

In Cape Girardeau, Fulk, Police Chief Rick Hetzel, Fire Chief Dan White, Public Works Director Doug Leslie and Kevin Priester, utility manager for the city's water system, will gather at the Emergency Operations Center at Fire Station No. 1 late New Year's Eve to see if disaster strikes.

"If things go smoothly, it's because we all worried about it," said City Manager Michael Miller.

The city has been working on its Y2K compliance for nearly two years. Many of the computers at City Hall and other locations were upgraded because of their age, and making them Y2K compliant was just an added benefit.

But there are still some problems to be worked out. Utility bills will be mailed a little later than usual because of a computer upgrade. The upgrade will make the billing system Y2K compliant, but the installation process has created delays, said City Finance Director John Richbourg.

Due dates and penalty dates will be adjusted to accommodate the delays, and the schedule should be back to normal by February.

Scott City officials said their billing system is Y2K compliant, and everything should function as normal.

There aren't any plans for additional public works crews or emergency personnel to be working New Year's Eve. Most of them are on call should an emergency arise, said Erika Glock, city administrator.

Having extra crews on hand won't create any sort of overtime burden on Cape Girardeau's payroll because many employees like police, firefighters and water plant crews would already have been scheduled to work, Miller said.

In Jackson, emergency personnel will be at "heightened readiness," according to City Administrator Steve Wilson. Three additional police officers will be on duty Friday night, and the police department command staff will be on standby. Off-duty officers have been asked to be prepared to report if needed.

The city's fire and rescue command staff will be on duty, and the other personnel will be backed up. "We have asked all off-duty personnel and volunteers to be in a standby situation," Wilson said.

The city's director of communications also will be working that night.

The city has installed Y2K-compliant software and has performed successful trial runs to insure it works.

To be safe, the city will power down its computer system Thursday, and its technician will bring the system back up over the weekend.

Wilson doesn't sense a high degree of public concern in Jackson about the possibility of a catastrophic event. "We don't look for it. We're probably taking a little extra sense of caution," he said.

Emergency personnel

Police and fire departments in Southeast Missouri don't expect unusually significant troubles with Y2K, but some are still planning for the worst.

"We have looked at everything we can," said Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel. "We're trying to plan for things we haven't planned for yet."

One of Cape Girardeau County's biggest plans for Y2K has already been running for about a month, said Dick Knaup, chairman of the county 911 advisory committee. A new Southwestern Bell communications system has been handling emergency calls since early December, he said.

"We wanted to make the switchover smooth," he said. "There have been no glitches, and no one noticed the switch."

Earlier in the year the committee evaluated the 5-year-old Motorola system and found that it had severe Y2K problems, Knaup said. The changeover would have come anyway, he said, since the committee operates on a schedule to update the system every five or six years.

If an unlikely breakdown does occur several contingency plans are in place, Knaup said.

Extra personnel, supplies and some new equipment make up law enforcement preparations for New Year's Eve.

All senior police officers will be present at the city's emergency operations center at the fire station, Hetzel said.

Police have looked at communications equipment and considered supply issues with gasoline for patrol cars and batteries to make sure they will be ready, he said.

One of the most vital tasks of emergency personnel on New Year's Eve will be letting the public know what Y2K is not responsible for.

"What happens after midnight when a driver strikes a telephone pole?" Hetzel said. "People will assume when the power goes out that it's Y2K."

He said it will be important to get information out to the public as soon as possible regarding such occurrences.

Like all law enforcement agencies in the area, Cape Girardeau police have made provisions to contact additional officers to bring on duty as needed.

Jackson police will keep all supervisors on an on-call basis while bringing in a couple of police from road patrols to be on duty at the station, Lt. James Humphreys said.

Scott City Police Chief Danny Clubb said his department will approach this New Year's like all others knowing that if necessary they can call for outside assistance from other agencies.

Every trooper except those on extended vacations will be working on Friday and Saturday, said Lt. Dave Hart of the Missouri Highway Patrol. "But this would be normal procedure even if it wasn't Y2K," he said.

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department is taking the same approach, Capt. Ruth Ann Dickerson said. "We aren't anticipating any problems," she said.

Firefighters in Cape Girardeau have taken extra precautions, said Mark Hashheider, the fire department's training officer.

Inquires have been made across the city to check on alarm systems. The lack of complex technology in most of them mean computer-related troubles aren't likely, he said.

"We found that most of them are too dumb to cause a problem," he said.

To fulfill Federal Aviation Administration requirements, the vehicle responsible for the regional airport was put through tests, which were forwarded to the federal agency, Hashheider said.

Emergency personnel will be monitoring utility systems very closely, he said.

Hospitals

Preparations for New Year's Eve and preventing Y2K-related problems at both Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center began months ago. Representatives from both hospitals said they have spent time and money to make sure they are internally ready with systems that are Y2K compliant.

Both hospitals also have disaster contingency plans, which were developed to deal with things like tornadoes and earthquakes as well as any Y2K problems, to deal with any external emergencies that might occur.

At St. Francis Medical Center, extra staff will be on duty to be prepared for anything that might happen, said Marcie Abernathy, director of emergency services.

"We will be prepared for a worst-case scenario, though we don't anticipate any problems," Abernathy said.

There will be clinical staff that can manually ventilate or provide other services for patients dependent on utility-run treatment. In addition there also will be support personnel from plant maintenance, plant operations, biomedical engineering, information systems and supplies.

For these staff members who will be missing New Year's Eve festivities, there will be snacks.

"It won't be a party, but we wanted to supply a little festive atmosphere to those with these professional obligations," Abernathy said.

At Southeast Missouri Hospital, people from several departments that wouldn't normally work on New Year's Eve will be at the hospital for at least a few hours, said Jerry Sanders, assistant administrator at Southeast Missouri Hospital. These include plant engineers, biomedical engineers, electricians and people from the information systems, telecommunications and administration departments. He said the plan is for these people to be there around midnight and stay until they are certain there are no problems.

Also, department managers will be checking in and will come to the hospital if they have extreme difficulties getting hold of the hospital.

Southeast is not planning on bringing in extra clinical staff, Sanders said. "We feel we will have adequate staff," he said. And more can be called in if there is an emergency as outlined in the hospital's emergency contingency plan.

Schools and university

Cape Girardeau schools Superintendent Dan Steska said he's not expecting the district to experience any major Y2K-related problems.

There may be some individual classroom computers that are affected, but technology coordinator Brian Hall and technician Patrick Dunham have upgraded most of the district's computer hardware and software in recent months to ensure a smooth transition into the next millennium, he said.

Even so, Dr. Steve Del Vecchio, the district's business manager, will visit the district's administrative offices Saturday to check programs that might affect employment or records.

"He'll be coming in just to check the payroll and other applications," Steska said. "To my knowledge we're not expecting any problems."

Steska said businesses affiliated with the district don't anticipate any problems. For example, Ryder Transportation, which provides school bus services for the school district, doesn't have a computerized transportation system that might be affected by the calendar change.

Y2K isn't a major concern at Southeast Missouri State University, in part because the university is shut down for Christmas break. With the students and staff gone, there isn't the concern that may face other industries or agencies, said Pauline Fox, vice president for administration and enrollment management.

"We have not called in additional people," she said. As usual, there will be campus police on duty. Facilities management and computer services personnel also will be on duty throughout the holidays as usual.

"We will know in advance if there are likely to be problems," said Fox, noting that midnight will have rolled through Europe several hours earlier.

Fox said university officials can monitor news reports on the afternoon of Dec. 31 to see if Y2K problems surfaced in Europe.

She said the university has an emergency preparedness plan. The university went through an emergency preparedness exercise this fall that centered on a mock tornado.

"I think we are in good shape," said Fox.

Transportation and utilities

New Year's Eve won't go unnoticed at the Missouri Department of Transportation. MoDOT plans to have crews out New Year's Eve to check on traffic lights at major intersections throughout the state.

In the department's District 10 in Southeast Missouri, about 25 highway workers will be deployed to check on traffic signals at some 100 intersections, including ones in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff.

Many of the traffic signals are in St. Francois County, said Ron Underwood, operations engineer for the highway department in Sikeston.

Highway workers will be deployed around the district from 10 to 11 p.m. in preparation for the new year.

Underwood said the department wants to make sure that traffic lights are working properly when the clock strikes midnight. In heavily traveled areas, the lights will be checked over a period of several hours to make sure they are cycling properly.

Like other agencies and industries, MoDOT is preparing for possible emergencies that could arise if the Y2K bug causes computer malfunctions.

The worry is that computers around the world might not be equipped to recognize the new millennium, causing malfunctions.

"We've got to make sure they have power first," Underwood said of traffic signals.

The utility companies are responsible for providing the power. But if the power goes out, MoDOT crews plan to be ready to respond by erecting temporary stop signs at intersections, Underwood said.

MoDOT also wants to make sure that the computer chips in traffic signals aren't thrown off when the new year rolls around.

The highway department also plans to check everything from its radio towers to its telephone system. The customer service telephone number at MoDOT's Sikeston office will be manned New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to handle any questions or concerns on the part of the general public.

"We will have staff in there along with computer specialists," said Underwood.

The status of the traffic signals will be reported to MoDOT's headquarters. The information will be updated every two hours for the first six hours of the new year, he said.

Information for this report was compiled by Southeast Missourian staff writers Sam Blackwell, Mark Bliss, Tamara Zellars Buck, Tony Hall, Teresa Johnson and B. Ray Owen.