Oak Park told to not get hung-up on 911 woes

Oak Park officials hope their unpleasant experiences with the 911 emergency system are a thing of the past now that upgrades have been made to computers and telephone lines that serve the community.

Last April, several 911 calls went out from St. Maximilian Kolbe Church on Lindero Canyon Road requesting help for a man who was said to be suffering from chest pains.

Instead of the calls being routed to the Ventura County Fire Department for help, the calls wound up at L.A. County Sheriff Depart-ment’s West Hollywood station.

"It was a delay of fatal length if that had been a true emergency," said Glen Wilcox, a member of the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council (MAC).

In June, another caller with medical problems dialed 911 from an apartment on Foxwood Drive and got a ring, but no answer. Paramedics weren’t sent to the apartment until the caller reached the Ventura County Sheriff’s communication center on his third try.

At least three other incidents have marred Oak Park’s 911 system, according to Ron Stark, an assistant to Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo.

"We’ve had so many failures over the past five years or six years in this community, it just doesn’t seem reasonable," Stark said.

The 911 system began serving Ventura County in 1982.

In the St. Maximilian incident, officials say a 911 database hadn’t been updated to include the church’s new telephone number.

Tisha McQueen, a 911 service executive for Pacific Bell, said the company reloaded all 811 telephone prefixes into its 911 database to make sure the problem wouldn’t recur.

"We have a deep concern and want to make sure things work properly," McQueen said.

A computer router problem prevented the Foxwood call from being answered properly, but that problem has been fixed, too, according to Pac Bell officials.

Although residential and business construction in Oak Park is mostly complete, the MAC is worried that the final homes of the Chambord development might not be connected properly.

Wilcox wants customers with new phone lines to call 911 as a test, but phone company officials advise otherwise. They fear real emergency calls might be interrupted.

"We don’t want to encourage people to pick up their phones and test 911," said Michael Carney, a Pac Bell spokesperson.

"We can look into having our techs check 911 connections when lines are installed."

Over the summer, Pac Bell gave Oak Park additional 911 capacity by doubling the number of trunk lines serving the community from two to four. The additional capacity became operational June 24.

Oak Park 911 calls are first routed to a phone company central office in Sherman Oaks, then to proper police, fire or ambulance authorities in Ventura County.