Opening of Lake County’s consolidated dispatch center has been pushed back two weeks due to unexpected delays in the construction of the system’s south Lake County antenna.
Brian Hitchcock, E-911 director, said there have been a couple unexpected factors contributing to a delay in completing the final tower that will push back consolidation by two weeks.
“We didn’t want the delay any more than any of you guys did,” Hitchcock told members of the Lake County Public Safety Communications Commission.
There have been a few rain day delays that have kept workers off the site, he said, and workers also were unable to get to the tower site for several days while concrete was poured for the reconstruction work on Indiana 55.
There also have been a few issues with AT&T that forced reconfiguring the consolidation schedule. AT&T does not have site engineers working on Fridays, so all planned Friday consolidations were shifted to Thursdays.
“I think in the next week they will have it up and running,” he said Thursday.
It will take approximately two weeks for the company to grid-test the entire network before it can be used.
Jack Allendorf, deputy director, said Motorola will be breaking the county into 500-plus 3/4-square-mile grids for testing. Each grid must have a 97 percent connectivity and be at least 97 percent reliable.
“I’ve been participating in the testing at the core site…I’ve learned a ton of capabilities. It’s unbelievable,” Allendorf said.
Officials have planned an open house Sept. 18 to give public safety personnel and the general public a chance to check out the facility before it goes live.
Cities and towns will consolidate in the same order as previously announced, just two weeks later. Crown Point will be the first to consolidate on Sept. 29. Merrillville will be brought online Sept. 30 and Gary on Oct. 1. Hammond and Whiting will be brought in Oct. 6, Highland and Griffith Oct. 7 and Munster Oct. 8.
The Lake County Sheriff Department will start the third week of consolidation Oct. 13, followed by East Chicago Oct. 14 and Hobart and Lake Station Oct. 15. In the final week St. John and Dyer will be brought in Oct. 20 and Lowell will be the last to come online Oct. 21.
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
