SCOTT CITY PLANS NO CHANGES IN 911 CONTRACT

SCOTT CITY -- The Scott City Council isn't planning any immediate changes in the city's 911 contract with Scott County.

The council was unanimous in its decision this week, said Mayor Larry Forhan.

The contract allows the city to keep its Enhanced-911 system, which has been in operation since November 1993.

The contract was signed by the city and the Scott County Commission before the Nov. 8 election, which authorized a phone surcharge in both Scott and New Madrid counties to fund a 911 system.

The council is waiting for a letter from the county commission outlining specific requests on the contract, Forhan said. Without a specific proposal, the council doesn't want to change the contract, he said.

The Scott County Commission, at the urging of members of the county's 911 advisory committee, expressed concerns after the election about two particular provisions in the contract.

The one change that wouldn't make much difference to the council is how the 15 percent surcharge on basic phone bills is distributed to the city, Forhan said.

The contract says Scott City will receive the phone surcharge from local residents. The agreement calls for the county to receive those funds from the telephone company and then turn that money over to the city within 10 days.

"If the county wants to have it sent directly to the city, that would be fine too," Forhan said.

He said the city contacted a Southwestern Bell 911 representative to see if the city could receive the money directly.

The advisory committee's other concern on the contract deals with a provision giving the Scott City mayor the right to name representatives to a 911 board equal to 20 percent of its total members.

The council isn't willing to change that provision at this point, Forhan said.

He said Scott City is the second largest city in both Scott and New Madrid counties and should be represented. In addition, the size of the 911 board hasn't been decided yet, he said.

Even though the contract allows Scott City to keep its 911 system outside of any newly-developed areawide operation, Forhan thinks the city should still be represented on the new 911 board.

"The residents of Scott City are in Scott County," Forhan said. The city will continue to provide services to other agencies also, such as the ambulance district, he said.

"We were the only city that took it upon themselves to have Enhanced-911," the mayor said. "That experience will be valuable in setting up a new system" to serve the entire two counties, he said.

Scott City's system will have to be integrated with any new 911 operation, Forhan said. He said the systems will have to be interconnected to handle the selective routing of calls to the proper answering point.

In other business this week, the council passed an ordinance, annexing 9.29 acres north of the Cloverdale Subdivision. The land, on which more housing is planned, is owned by Benny and Roberta Wheeler, and their children and spouses: Joe and Beverly Hanschen, and Brian and Marsha Wheeler.

The council also passed an ordinance setting the speed limit at 25 mph in the city, unless otherwise posted on state highways where it's 35.