The Saline County 9-1-1 Commission has hired a director for the centralized emergency dispatch center and released a list of proposed sites for the facility at its meeting Thursday, March 13, in Miami.

The commission announced Friday, March 14, that it has selected Pamela Teague, who has experience implementing 9-1-1 services in Benton County and is currently operations manager and training coordinator of the Barry County enhanced 9-1-1 organization in Cassville.

"Ms. Teague has a strong background in staff training and that will be something that we need on the start," said commission President John Fletcher. "Of the individuals interviewed, we liked this individual the best, but it was a very close decision and there were other candidates that we could have been very pleased with."

Teague is expected to relocate to Saline County soon and will begin her duties Monday, April 7, Fletcher said.

"Her first order of business will be to set up temporary offices and establish relationships with the various service providers who will use the 9-1-1 service as well as the various city and county government officials," Fletcher said.

In other business, the commission released a list of eight sites that have been proposed for the central dispatch center.

The City of Marshall offered three possible sites, including one at the junction of Highway 240 and Route O, one in the Marshall Industrial Park and one adjacent to the new Shirley Martin Community Center/Nicholas-Beazley Aviation Museum, near the Marshall Municipal Airport.

The city of Slater proposed a site at the city's industrial park. City officials said they would close the Slater Municipal Airport to make way for the center and would allow the use of an adjacent water tower for placing antennas.

Bruce Guier proposed a site at 701 Bridge St. in Sweet Springs, previously the home of Sweet Springs Community Hospital.

Sandy Hisle, representing Midwest Residential LLC proposed a site on Fairground Road across from the entrance to Fitzgibbon Hospital.

Steven Wansing, representing James Joseph Thompson, proposed a site on Route YY just past Atchison Avenue in Marshall.

Richard and Carol Pemberton proposed a site at the intersection of Highways 240 and 41, four miles east of Marshall.

Fletcher said the site selection process would begin in earnest after the April 8 election when new commission members could be joining the effort.

The commission also voted to approve the road naming scheme developed by GeoComm, the commission's consultant, after making several changes.

One change involved naming U.S. Highway 65 "Saline 65 Highway" from the Saline County-Pettis County line to the Saline County-Lafayette County line.

South of Marshall the highway will be known as South Saline 65 Highway and north of Marshall it will be North Saline 65 Highway.

Another change, suggested by commission member Cindi Mullins, amended "Blueberry Road" southwest of Sweet Springs to "Berry Bridge Road" in order to avoid confusion. Two other roads in the area were slated to have "blue" in their names.

The next meeting of the Saline County 9-1-1 Commission will be Thursday, April 10, at 5:30 p.m. in the Marshall City Office Building.

Contact Eric Crump at marshalleditor@socket.net