Don Allen

The first of two phases in Hamilton County’s 911 unification project were completed Monday morning when the 911 Emergency Communications District assumed liability and management for answering and dispatching emergency calls in the county.

Residents noticed no change in service when the unification — ratified in January 2008 and in the works for 20 years — occurred during a shift change at 6:45 a.m. Monday, said Don Allen, chairman of the 911 board.

The unified system creates one emergency-dispatch system for those under the agreement. It also provides training and certification to turn all current dispatchers into emergency medical dispatchers, meaning they can help callers with health issues until an ambulance arrives.

“Good things take a long time to come to fruition,” Mr. Allen said. “This is, most importantly, something that’s going to be good for our community and a more efficient operation.”

The second phase will occur Jan. 19, when operations move from their current building on Amnicola Highway to what is now the back-up center, Mr. Allen said. Officials declined to name the location for security reasons.

When initially announced, 911 unification was scheduled for Nov. 1, but it was pushed back to make sure adequate time was given to address issues and problems.

Challenges still remain, including too few employees and more time needed to implement an upgrade to the computer-aided dispatch software, said John Stuermer, the district’s executive director.

“We are significantly understaffed at this point,” Mr. Stuermer said, “but ... telecommunicators have been stepping forward and volunteering to work overtime.”

While that may alleviate part of the problem, the amount of allowed overtime is limited and administrators worry that too many working hours will lead to burnout, he said.

Graduates of the current 911 training academy are set to begin work as call takers in late February, at which point another academy will begin, he said.

“The biggest problem we talked about is that we can only train a limited number of people at a time,” he said. “That’s our limitation, and we have to work within those boundaries.”