MOUNT VERNON — Local fire and law enforcement officials met with the Knox County Commissioners on Monday to explain some of the almost 30 reasons the Enhanced 9-1-1 Board believes necessitates reconvening the Knox County E 9-1-1 Planning Commission in order to overhaul the county’s 9-1-1 plan. The plan, drawn in 1993, has remained mostly unchanged in the past 15 years.

Those meeting with the commissioners included Sheriff David Barber, Mount Vernon Police Capt. George Hartz, Emergency Management Agency Director Marie Blubaugh, Mount Vernon Fire Chief Shawn Christy and Knox County Fire Chief Association President Rick Lanuzza.

“During the last 9-1-1 [board] meeting, we had lengthy discussions about getting the plan reopened,” Barber explained. “We’ve gone completely through the 15-year-old plan.”

The list of reasons to reopen the plan include numerous information updates, such as the number of access lines in the county, area codes and telephone exchanges.

Policy changes, such as appointing a chairperson to communicate with the Technical Advisory Committee which would advise the E 9-1-1 Planning Commission, and observing and reviewing both Public Safety Answering Points at the county and city dispatch centers annually, are also included in the list.

“These were all just examples of the many examples why the plan needs to be reviewed,” Christy said, pointing at the proposals. “There’s many things that need to be addressed.”

“There were not provisions put into that plan to upgrade as the system grew, as the county grew,” Barber said of the 1993 9-1-1 Implementation Plan. “There are things that weren’t even issues 15 years ago, the biggest being cellular communication.”

The commissioners had invited Knox County Assistant Prosecutor Chip McConville to be a part of Monday’s meeting.

“We’ve sought his counsel, as we’ve started to work on this issue,” Commissioner Allen Stockberger said.

McConville explained that there are two potential procedures available to enact changes to the E 9-1-1 plan. An addendum system allows a three-person planning commission to make changes. However, McConville said the commissioners were inclined to use the other alternative, which reopens the entire plan, using the input of the commissioners, the public, the E 9-1-1 Planning Commission and Technical Advisory Committee, and legislative bodies across the county.

“The commissioners feel that If this is going to be opened, it should be reopened in a way that allows the most input,” McConville said.

Mcconville said the starting point would be to reconvene the Planning Commission, with a directive to reconvene the Technical Advisory Committee as well. The TAC would include emergency professionals from police, fire, and health agencies, among others.

“I do not think that we’re resistant to that,” Stockberger said. “We can do that after we finish this meeting.”

Lengthy discussion followed regarding radio issues in the county, which centered around a need for improved radio technology. But members of the E 9-1-1 Board said radios were only part of the need to revise the plan.

After the discussion, the commissioners passed a resolution to “convene the 9-1-1 Planning Commission for the purpose of considering amendments to the existing 9-1-1 Plan.” The resolution also states the planning commission will be composed of members directed by Ohio Revised Code, and the procedures for plan development and approval shall also follow the ORC.

The process involving public hearings and the input of village and city councils, and township trustees, will take around a year.