MOUNT VERNON — Knox County 911’s new Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system went live Tuesday morning, with the vendor — CentralSquare Technologies, owner of the Zuercher system — to be on hand the first three days of this week to smooth out any issues.
Kyle Webb, the county’s information technology director, informed Knox County Commissioners Tuesday morning that all of the software, computers, and data transfers from old servers on the former 20-year-old system to Zuercher CAD was seeing its final data transfers happen just as he provided them his technology update.
Some of the final, last-minute testings have involved activities such as placing 911 calls with different phone numbers as a test to make sure all data that should be displayed to a 911 dispatcher appears as required, Webb offered. One of the advantages of the new Zuercher CAD system is that its GPS is more advanced than the old one, allowing dispatchers to know precisely where law enforcement officers are, and thereby dispatch the nearest officer to a 911 call’s origin.
The project has involved substantial IT department time but it has gone well, according to Webb, and three of his four department employees have been working with CentralSquare Technologies. Some of the required IT upgrades for the project have included four server replacements for the 911 dispatch center; one server replacement for the sheriff’s office; configuring a new connection plan for all external devices needing CAD access; and installing 25 mobile data terminals in sheriff’s cruisers, which are connected to CAD.
In other matters, commissioners heard about a new program through the Knox Metropolitan Housing Authority, which would help build positive rental histories with landlords for youths who have “aged out” of foster care. The presentation, made by housing authority Director Ed Tharp and Deputy Director Shannon Treisch, concerned the Foster Youth to Independence Tenant Protection Vouchers. The voucher program would provide a rental subsidy to former foster care youths age 18 and over, who would receive it to help cover their rental agreements and establish a good rental history. The program was created last year by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“If you search the Internet, there are many success stories about this program nationwide,” Tharp said.
The youths would be able to stay on the tenant protection vouchers for up to three years. Tharp’s presentation included a request to commissioners that they provide some funding to support the program, in the amount of about $4,000. That would be enough to provide eight youths identified early on for the program with a county-paid voucher of $500.
KMHA is partnering with Knox Children and Family Services, part of the county department of Jobs and Family Services, on another component of the program that would provide direct support to former foster youths in the tenant protection vouchers program. Youths would receive basic life skills information and counseling in areas such as money management and use of credit, job preparation and attainment counseling, and educational and career advancement counseling.
“I believe this program could prove a valuable addition to the tools that Knox County has to prevent homelessness while encouraging economic mobility, (and) while assisting some of the most forgotten-about population,” Tharp wrote in his one-page program presentation.
Commissioners did not act on the funding request, with Tharp saying the details on how funding will work are still being determined. But he said they would be asked to provide somewhere in the range of $4,000 of initial support.
Commissioner Teresa Bemiller, a former KMHA director, said she believes it to be a good program because many foster youths who turn 18 lack direction on the next steps to take in life to have a productive career and home life. A program that provides rental assistance, and with it, job preparation and career counseling would be invaluable, she said.
Booth, who also directed KMHA at one time, said one of the biggest barriers to young people starting out as adults is finding housing that will work for them. The program would offer considerable assistance in several areas to a vulnerable segment of the young adult population, he added.
