Orange County NC Website
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: November 5, 2009 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 7 -- Q <br />SUBJECT: Update on 911 Addressing Project <br />DEPARTMENT: Information Technologies and PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />Emergency Services <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />None <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Steve Averett, (919)245-2501 <br />Frank Montes de Oca, (919)245-6140 <br />PURPOSE: To update the BOCC on the 911 Addressing Project. <br />BACKGROUND: Throughout the 1990's and early 2000's, Orange County Land Records <br />maintained the County's addresses in a system called MOAD (Master Orange Address <br />Database). MOAD was strictly a tabular database where addresses could be searched, but not <br />displayed in GIS or used in mapping or in any visual sense. Since the 911 CAD (computer aided <br />dispatch) system could not read address points but, instead, dispatched using address ranges on <br />streets, Emergency Services (ES) was not a primary customer of the system. This also meant <br />that MOAD was not reconciled with the addresses supplied by the phone companies, which are <br />used to identify a caller during the 911 dispatch process. MOAD was used by many of the <br />County departments, but not all. Several departments still maintained and used their own <br />address databases, creating conflicts and discrepancies when displayed to the public. MOAD <br />was also very slow to be updated from other addressing jurisdictions in Orange County, typically <br />taking months to be updated. <br />In 2003, ES and the BOCC began to realize the need for a visual addressing system that would <br />be reconciled with the telephone companies' addresses and used as the primary dispatch <br />mechanism during the initial 911 dispatching process, as well as during the delivery of services. <br />This new system would be more accurate and also fulfill the needs of every department that <br />requires addressing information, displacing the discrepancies that previously existed. It was also <br />critical that the new address points, to be stored and maintained in GIS, would need to be <br />updated quickly and efficiently. Throughout 2003 and early 2004, the BOCC and staff from ES <br />and Land Records worked to develop a plan to bring these goals to fruition. <br />On April 13, 2004, the BOCC awarded a contract to Geographic Technologies Group (GTG) to <br />perform a field verification of all physical addresses and streets located in Orange County. In <br />