Last week, the Cass County Board of Commissioners received some unpleasant news from county Information Systems Director Kerry Collins — that the backbone that powers the government’s 200-plus telephones is nearing the end of its service.

According to Collins, the county’s analog phone system will reach the end of its life on Dec. 31, meaning that the service vendor will no longer be able to make repairs or supply replacement parts in case of any failures. This situation puts the county in jeopardy of losing the ability to receive incoming and place outgoing calls within all five structures owned and operated by county employees, most critical of which is the 911 dispatch center operated by the sheriff’s office.

While the IT department had planned on replacing the aging phone control system with a modern, digital one using capital funds, a recent spending freeze put in place by the commissioners has placed those plans on hold. As a result, Collins went before the board to bring this issue to the members’ attention.

Given the situation, the county should hit the defrost button on their plans as quickly as possible.

While the spending hold, put in place with the passage of the recent county budget, was made with the noble intention to avoid finances dipping into the red, it should not prevent officials from moving forward with essential work that will allow the rest of the local government to continue operation as usual. And the maintenance of county phones would certainly fall into that category.

Collins told the commissioners that the price of replacing the phone system could cost nearly $250,000, which would be a significant investment by the county.

Just imagine the chaos, though, that would ensue should 911 dispatch services be disrupted for even a few minutes, let alone the days it could potentially take to restore a phone system without the assistance of the manufacturer.

When you think about just that scenario, it makes that heavy investment seem like a no-brainer.

We encourage the commissioners to take action on this issue as soon as possible.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.