Lake County commissioners March 15 approved an agreement between the county and city of Mentor to share 911 equipment.

For the past several months, the county’s commissioners’ office, Sheriff’s Office and Telecommunications Department have worked with Mentor safety forces on the agreement. The county will now share a 911 Public Safety Answering Position with the city.

Currently, Lake County answers all 911 calls for police and fire services from all cell phones as well as landline phone calls for all areas responded to by the Sheriff’s Office, Perry, Kirtland Hills, Grand River, Fairport Harbor, Painesville and Timberlake.

County Telecommunications Director Paul Stefanko said 139,000 residents are impacted by the agreement — roughly 60 percent of the county’s population.

Stefanko said the agreement saves money now as well as in the future and will put a more reliable 911 system in place.

The county will share in the upfront cost, ongoing maintenance costs and all software and firmware costs with Mentor. Lake County will own the equipment.

Stefanko added that because technology is now advancing so fast, they must plan on replacing equipment every 10 years. In the past equipment would last twice that long.

“This is one example where we can do a better job working together than working alone,” Stefanko said. “As large as Lake County’s Central Dispatch, and as large as the city of Mentor is, we collectively understand that we can no longer afford to operate on individual islands and must learn to share services going forward.”

Stefanko added that the new equipment is “truly state of the art.”

“It is next-gen capable, which means that when the state does come forward with a standard for texting 911, this equipment is ready to be adapted to that,” he said.

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