County to finish repairs on E

Mike Wolanin | The Republic Dispatcher Megan Hedger sits at her workstation in the 911 dispatch center at the Bartholomew County Emergency Management Center in Columbus, Ind., Friday, March 11, 2022.

COLUMBUS, Ind. — Two months after lightning directly hit the Bartholomew County E911 Emergency Management Center tower, the subsequent damage is still not completely fixed. But funds have been approved to make permanent repairs.

The early morning lightning strike on Saturday, July 1, caused extensive damage to electronic equipment at 131 S. Cherry St., as well as quite a bit of panic among county officials and first responders, center director Todd Noblitt said.

Besides himself, county information technology director Scott Mayes and other IT specialists were also called immediately on what was supposed to be the start of a holiday weekend, Noblitt said. Most stayed well into the afternoon hours, he said.

Half of the entire 911 system was knocked out of commission, half of the emergency dispatch telephones no longer worked, and half of the center’s computer automatic dispatch (CAD) system was not functioning, Noblitt said.

But at the same time, half of those systems remained operational. The reason was summed up by Noblitt in two words: engineering redundancy. The term refers to the inclusion of extra components not strictly necessary to function, but are included in case of failure in other components.

As the 911 system and phones were evaluated and repaired, emergency calls were temporarily rerouted to other phones, Noblitt said. The redundancy components, as well as extensive work by the IT staff, allowed the 911 Center to return to normal operations that afternoon, he said.

However, several switchers, routers and computer components were destroyed, as was the entire intercom system, Noblitt said. There was also damage to the electronic key pads that unlock secure areas, an electrical generator and an air-conditioning unit, Noblitt said.

The IT department, along with other professionals, worked several days to repair what they could, but on Monday, the Bartholomew County commissioners approved three purchases from Koorsen Fire and Security to make permanent repairs.

The county agreed to pay for:

Meanwhile, the county is still waiting for some new parts to arrive to repair one of the air conditioning units, Noblitt said.

For the complete story, see Tuesday’s Republic.