Emergency officials considering mass notification system

With spring storm season just around the corner, emergency officials in Bourbon County are working to establish an improved warning system.

Bourbon County Commissioners on Friday met with Fort Scott Fire Chief Paul Ballou, Fort Scott Police Chief Travis Shelton, Fort Scott District 3 Fire Department Chief Delwin Mumbower, Bourbon County Information Technologies Coordinator Shane Walker and Bourbon County Emergency Manager Will Wallis.

"We've got our certain severe weather alert systems," Ballou said.

Rural residents have the outdoor warning system and the city of Fort Scott is working on providing interior informer boxes.

"With most of these mass notifications, they have a nonemergency notification side to them, so you have a lot of benefit to the community once you get these things in place," Ballou said.

A mass notification system can send emergency notifications on cell phones similar to Amber Alerts. The system can be used to warn of approaching storms, or a lost child -- even if the child hasn't been abducted.

Walker said there is no limit to how many organizations want to use the system. The original setup is similar to reverse 911, with those who don't want to receive the calls having the option to opt out of the system.

Ballou said visitors would be able to go to the system's website and sign up to receive Bourbon County notifications while they are here.

While elderly residents may have cell phones, Ballou said their children who may be living in another state could also sign up to receive the Bourbon County notifications so they could call their parents.

Ballou said many southeast Kansas counties use mass notification system by CodeRED," but another system, Everbridge, costs less and offers a few more services.

CodeRED costs $17,000 per year, with a three-year contract. Everbridge costs $9,000 a year.

Ballou suggested the cost be divided between several entities. School districts currently use a system called "School Reach," which costs about $2,000 per year.

"When you look at that, you think, well, if we can get them involved (with a county-wide system), one they could use this, but it's also going to cut their cost in half on an annual basis."

Ballou suggested getting the system operational now with a few entities paying for the first year, then adding others in the future. He said the city is interested in the system and Commission Chairman Allen Warren suggested that several departments in the county could help with the expense.

Outdated documents

* Bourbon County Attorney Terri Johnson and County Treasurer Rhonda Dunn also met with commissioners regarding the need to destroy old records that are past the formal retention period. During past meetings with commissioners, it was recommended old documents be shredded.

Johnson said three companies that offer secure shredding services have been contacted and the lowest price is from Tri-Valley. The company will pick up the documents and shred them at a cost of 20 cents per pound. Dunn said the estimate of $3,000 for all county documents is based on 30-pound boxes. After the documents are shredded, Tri-Valley takes the material to Chanute to be recycled.

The cost of using other companies was not made available, but Johnson said it was "significantly more."

Johnson said she estimates it will cost $900 to shred documents from her office.

"I was going to burn mine," Johnson said. "I didn't budget for shredding."

Warren said burning will take longer and because the destruction process must be secure, the burn would have to be monitored by a county employee.

"And then if the wind picks up and some of those papers get away from you..." Warren said.

Johnson said while she doesn't have money allocated for shredding, she does have the cost of salaries in her budget.

Warren suggested that because none of the departments included funds for shredding in their budgets this year, that could be included in the 2015 budget. He also suggested documents needing to be destroyed this year could be burned.

Determining which documents can be shredded is based on a state document retention guideline. Some types of documents must be retained longer. Others can never be destroyed.

"The state retention policy is not an easy thing to manage," Dunn said. "You have to get in and dig in and understand what you're doing. I've labeled all my boxes, what's in there, how long it can be kept and when it needs to be destroyed."

She said she's been cleaning up "years of records."

None of the documents have historical value, but Dunn has set some documents aside that could be destroyed, she said.

"There are things I think are more important to keep than get rid of that box," Dunn said. "So I've kept those kind of things."

"It's funny, because it's really hard not be a hoarder," Johnson said. "It's really hard to get rid of those things."

"When you go through a hundred boxes, it's easier not to be a hoarder," Dunn said.

Other county business

* Commissioners held a 20-minute executive session with Roads and Bridges Director Jim Harris to discuss nonelected personnel to protect their privacy. The session was extended an additional 15 minutes, with no action taken.

* Commissioners voted to move the county's election supplies to a secured area in the former motor vehicle's office, to leave the driver's license office at its current location for now, and to allow William Wallis to move his daily office from the basement to the first floor in Office No. 10.

County Clerk Kendell Mason also was given permission to have the secured area re-keyed.

The Motor Vehicles' Office was relocated to the second floor Treasurer's Office in February.

* Johnson recommended commissioners take into consideration recommendations already made about maintenance needs at her office building when they begin working with representatives P1 Group Inc. The commissioners in February voted to pay the company $8,500 for a study of the courthouse and jail facility as a precursor to a formal Master Plan for the buildings.