The Covington County E-911 Board met Thursday afternoon in a brief, but productive session at the county's E-911/EMA Building in Andalusia. Among the topics discussed were budget items involving pay raises and insurance benefits for employees, remodeling parts of the building for enhanced handicapped accessibility and an update on the systems data gathering processes.

The board agreed to give employees a 2.5 cents across the board raise and assume the insurance increase of employees with individual coverage and a portion of the increase for employees with family coverage.

Board member Jerry Williamson said rising insurance premiums are a concern of everyone and board member Royce Short said it was good that the board was able to assist as much as they could.

The board also accepted a bid from Tim Howell Construction totaling $4,489 for work to be done on the E-911/EMA Building to enhance handicapped access.

"He will be installing a handicapped accessible toilet, railings, and an awning and ramp on the back of the building that meet handicapped requirements," said Susan Carpenter, E-911 director.

Currently, the front of the building is handicapped accessible, but the back entrance, where employees enter and exit the building after hours isn't. This provides a handicapped entrance in the back with a cover and makes the women's bathroom handicapped accessible as well.

Carpenter also presented the board with an update on the system's process of gathering data for residences.

"We have completed the process of going door to door in Opp and gathering all the data to enter into the computer system," she said. "This gives all the operators a description of all the houses in the mapping system to help them provide better information to emergency responders."

A brief update was also presented to the board regarding the E-911 Open House held on September 11.

"We had a little over 50 people come through the Open House," Carpenter said. "We think that's great. It was a huge success and a lot of people got to see just what happens here and how fortunate we are to have the equipment we do."