CLEVELAND, Tenn. – In Joe Davis’ Veterans Affairs Service office, tucked away in a corner of the city courthouse, hang several awards that define his many different jobs.
Two of his favorites are a plaque for his time as an Army pilot flying BlackHawk helicopters. Another hanging over his door is for work that, while not as dangerous as helicopters, still gives him a great deal of pride – 21 years of service at the Bradley County 911 Center.
Mr. Davis is the last of the center’s original board members to retire. When the board was formed in 1988, he was serving as an Army pilot, but was appointed treasurer, one of the board’s two volunteer positions.
“The most rewarding stuff is the work done for free,” he said.
In those days, every emergency department was in a separate building in different parts of the county, Mr. Davis said. When a 911 call came in, the dispatcher had to page each agency, a time-consuming task.
“We had all kinds of fragmented dispatchers,” he said.
As a member of the 911 board, it became one of his missions to improve that service by consolidating both Cleveland and Charleston’s centers with the county.
The 911 board spent a lot of time talking about consolidating departments but nothing was done until “Joe says, ‘Let’s just start having meetings and talk about it,'” recalled Joe Wilson, 911 center director.
One of the biggest hurdles was convincing city officials they would have a voice after merging their centers with the county, Mr. Wilson said. In the mid-’90s, Tennessee did not have any law that required consolidated departments to have city officials on the board of directors.
Mr. Davis helped spearhead the initiative to create a separate 911 board that gave the city officials a position, he said.
After officials with Cleveland, Charleston and the county agreed to the change, the move was made Sept. 11, 1997 into a brand-new building in Cleveland.
Emergency Management Services, fire, police and sheriff’s deputies are now in the same building, working for one organization, Mr. Wilson said.
“Every day, I see the benefits,” he said. “It works really well how we’ve got it set up here.”
Another benefit to the setup is that 911 dispatchers are employees of the center, and everyone can receive the same level of training, Mr. Davis said. When a call comes through, any of the employees can answer the call, even if they are not assigned to that particular agency.
“Other counties have looked to Bradley County as a model for their 911 centers, and Mr. Davis has played a key role in the center’s success,” said Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland. “Mr. Davis has been a tremendous asset on the board and an attribute to (the) 911 center.”
Mr. Rowland, who serves on the 911 board, said groups often tour the center and attend the board member’s meeting to gain information on how the consolidation was done.
While Mr. Davis said the process wasn’t easy, when he attended the ribbon ceremony for the new building in 1997, it was his most memorable moment during his service.