The Greene County 911 Board voted unanimously Tuesday to name the 911 Dispatch Center after longtime 911 board member Gary Holt.
Holt served Greene County 911 as a board member for over two decades with most of those years spent as chairman of the board.
911 Board Chairman Tim Ward said that Holt’s contributions were invaluable for Greene County 911, and that the agency would not be where it was today if it were not for Holt.
Tim Ward
Board member John Waddle said that Holt was instrumental during the initial setup of the agency’s call center.
A plaque will be placed inside the dispatch center honoring Holt during a ceremony naming the building in his honor at a future date.
In other business, the 911 Board elected Teddy Lawing as its new chairman. Ward will be leaving the board as his time on Greeneville City Council comes to a close.
Greeneville Fire Chief Alan Shipley was named vice-chairman of the board.
A board secretary and treasurer will be named by the board at a future date. Lawing had been serving as the board’s treasurer.
Tuesday marked the last board meeting for four of the nine board members after recent elections changed the makeup of the Greene County Commission and Greeneville City Council. Some members of the board either chose to retire from their seats on their respective governing bodies or lost election to the seats.
Ward, Waddle, Lloyd “Hoot” Bowers, and Pam Carpenter will not be returning to the board as they will leave office in early September.
Ward expressed appreciation for those departing the board and noted that their contributions “could not be overstated.”
Greene County 911 Director Jerry Bird also thanked the outgoing board members for their service.
Greene County Mayor Kevin Morrison will make four appoints to the board to fill the vacancies.
The 911 Board is expected to hold its next meeting in October.
Morrison spoke to the board briefly Tuesday, and noted that the agency would likely need to begin reviewing how 911 addresses are allocated in the future due to issues with connecting utilities to agriculture buildings.
Morrison noted that utilities such as GEA require a 911 address before providing power to a property. Addresses are usually obtained when a building permit is obtained from the Greene County Building and Zoning office. However, agriculture structures do not require building permits. Therefore a 911 address is not assigned to the property requesting power for their barn or other agricultural facility.
He also noted that 911 and EMS would need to begin discussions on who arranges ambulance transports and pay rates for certain patients. Morrison noted that currently some caseworkers for patients contact 911 to negotiate transport costs outside of EMS’ office hours, however he noted that 911 dispatchers should not be responsible for that duty due to the qualifications required and the time required to do the task.
Morrison said that prior to 911 becoming Central Dispatch and dispatching all emergency calls, including law enforcement, in the county it was likely that the duty fell to them because they may have had more time to handle the matter and were open 24/7. That has now changed, and Morrison said that the matter needs to be addressed by 911 and EMS before it becomes a more pressing issue.
