City's 911 system back in service

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by Jaime Gerard

Editor

Tallmadge -- The city sent out its own 911 call when its emergency system was felled by lightning June 26.

From June 26 through July 1, the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department routed Tallmadge and Mogadore 911 calls back through the department's 2181, non-emergency line, according to Tallmadge police Lt. Ron Williams.

Tallmadge also provides dispatch services for the village of Mogadore's safety forces.

Williams said he believes that at 6:20 p.m. June 26, lightning struck an antenna at the rear of the building and traveled mainly through the phone lines, taking out the Positron Public Safety Systems and phone boxes which process emergency calls.

"It was one of the worst [strikes] one of the AT&T employees said he'd ever seen," Williams said.

Two dispatchers, two patrol officers and a prisoner were in the building when the lightning struck, said Williams. No one was injured.

In addition to disabling the 911 system, the lightning damaged dispatch's CMI electronic monitoring system, alarm panels for various city buildings, surveillance cameras, a printer and a keypad lock, all of which have since been repaired.

Dave Kline, the city's director of public service, said a private phone line that runs between City Hall and the police station was also fried. Kline estimates the city could be making a claim of between $15,000 and $20,000 to its insurance company.

"It's not as if we don't have lightning protection and surge protectors," he said.

Mark Wiggins, auxiliary services manager for the city of Cuyahoga Falls, said his dispatchers had routed 63, 911 calls for Tallmadge since June 26.

"There has been no impact on operations or delay in services," Wiggins said.

E-mail: jgerard@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3912