Special 911 Election Set for Dec. 13

Delaware County Commissioners have set Dec. 13 as the date for a special election on whether or not to implement emergency 911 service, which will be funded by a 50 cent per cell phone per month fee.
According to Don Murphy, Emergency 911 Coordinator for Delaware County, "residents who use land phones in their reisdence now pay approximately 8%, or roughly $1 per month per line, for 911 emergency service.
The date of Dec. 13 was set as similar elections will be held in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties and the resulting publicity for those will carryover into Delaware county, Murphy said.
If passed by the voters, the 50 cent per phone fee will be added to the monthly bill by the cellular company and distributed to the county via Grand Gateway, which will charge one cent per phone as handling fee.
Bruce Poindexter, Chairman, said the annual budget for the county was very close to being finished and should end up somewhere around $3,366,797 which was last year's actual number.
"We are $200,000 under what we need and $100,000 over last year," he said.