Commissioners get updates on Thursday's 911 outage, microtransit ridership

Lorain County 911 phone lines were down for about two-and-a-half hours Thursday night due to "growing pains," Director Rob Berner told the Board of Commissioners on Friday. The lines went down around 5:30 p.m. and were back up at about 8 p.m., according to officials and the county's emergency alert system. Calls to local police fire departments dispatched by Lorain County 911 were affected, and officials scrambled to get the word out online and on the WENS emergency text/email alert system. Berner said upgrades were being done to equipment at the county's Gateway complex on Gateway Boulevard in Elyria where 911 backup systems are housed. The Gateway complex was home to Lorain County 911 for nearly 30 years until it was moved to a facility on Burns Road next to Lorain County Community College. Berner said several short power outages were planned Thursday so a transfer switch could be reprogrammed. Two went off without a hitch earlier in the day, but a third resulted in the whole system going down, he said. The county's Vesta 911 software system, its call-taking system and microwave radio communications went down, Berner said. "There are still some old technologies at the Gateway Building still being utilized to communicate with different law enforcement agencies and fire and sheriff's agencies," he said. No one was immediately available to fix the problem, but a Vesta representative dispatched from Cleveland had the system back up within an hour of responding, Berner said. "It is unfortunate, but I will say it was addressed relatively quickly," he told the board. As a short-term fix, Motorola has provided Lorain County 911 with a UPS, or "uninterrupted power source," battery backup system. That means "we shouldn't have these problems in the near future," Berner said. Long term? "We need a better backup system," he said. County Administrator Jeff Armbruster said the WENS system requires residents to sign up, and can be targeted by the Lorain County Emergency Management Agency to specific geographic areas or municipalities in Lorain County. It isn't worth it, he said, to sent out a WENS alert if the system is going to be down for repairs, upgrades or other work for a few minutes, and he said he would talk to EMA Director Dave Freeman about why WENS users apparently didn't get a countywide alert that the system was down. "If we send it (an alert) out for every little thing, it will be ineffective, at least in this administrator's mind," Armbruster said. In other business, the board received an update on the ViaLC microtransit project in Elyria and Lorain that began running shuttle buses and vans as public transit in July. Between July 15 and Oct. 31, ViaLC served 1,625 riders and completed 19,000 rides, Deputy County Administrator Karen Perkins said. Of those, 57.6 percent of riders were in Lorain and 42.4 percent in Elyria. The top destinations were Vocational Guidance Services in Elyria; LCCC; the Walmart on Leavitt Road in Lorain; Mercy Health Hospital in Lorain; Chestnut Commons in Elyria; and the Meijer on Leavitt Road in Lorain. The average wait time for a ride was 16 minutes, and the average ride time 12 minutes, she said. Ninety-two percent of rides were booked on a smartphone app. Perkins said the county will continue monitor statistics, hoping to bring down the wait time. ViaLC is aware an average 16-minute wait time is "not acceptable" to Lorain County officials, and that the number should be closer to 10 minutes Perkins said. ViaLC is also looking for more drivers. To apply for the job, visit city.ridewithvia.com/lorain. Commissioners said they hoped to get more and better data on who is using the $2.4 million microtransit program in the coming months, and to partner with Lorain County cities on possible expansion of the program. "What we're doing now is very targeted so we're getting people from where they're at to where they need to go," Commissioner Jeff Riddell, a Republican, said. "So there's a role for city government and employers if we find this service is being used." Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.