My Pilgrimage to Haleyville, Alabama’s 9-1-1 Festival
Guest blog by:
James Lockerbie
Towns across America have festivals during the summer months each one usually has a theme celebrating a local industry or piece of history unique to the city. Three years ago, Haleyville, Alabama celebrated the 50th anniversary of the very first call to 9-1-1 many of NENA and APCO’s top executives were on hand to help celebrate the event. I personally wanted to attend but life events prohibited me from taking the journey south. April 1, 2021, Rep. Norma J Torres (D-CA) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) reintroduced their #911SavesAct Bill now under the Bill # H.R. 2351. The introduction was just in time for the annual celebration of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Week!
During this year’s celebration several individuals commented on social media the shame of only having one week to celebrate the work we do day in and day out. This idea and the idea that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, I decided to use my platform as one of four Administrators of a Facebook private group page dedicated to the reclassification of America’s 9-1-1 Professionals, Dispatchers as part of 1st Responders created by Jim Brown of West Virginia a Within the Trenches Podcast Alum, Rebekah McAleese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin a Fire Communications Officer, Dave Hartsaw a Retired LEO from West Virginia; we work hard to share encouragement and information with our members to continue to work for the reclassification of our profession.
This year’s Festival was June 3,4, and 5th starting Friday afternoon with a street market and then a Concert. The evening’s entertainment included The Taylor Nix Band, the Georgia Thunderbolts, Resurrection Journey Tribute, and Sawyer Brown. I was honored to join the local First Responders on stage as the organizers of the festival recognized members of all four Emergency Services with Officer of the Year, Deputy of the Year, firefighter of the Year and County Sheriff Dispatcher of the Year, Haleyville Dispatcher of the Year, I was honored to receive a Special Service Award for Promoting the 9-1-1 Saves Act and for encouraging the State of Alabama to create a similar Bill at the State level.
When I arrived at the airport in Memphis, Tennessee the local Hertz rental car, gave me the manager’s special. They gave me a Jeep Gladiator it is a little bit pick up and a little bit Jeep. The first thing I did after securing my transportation for the weekend, was to drive to Graceland to explore the King’s castle. Elvis Presley’s estate, it was very interesting and cool. As I was driving south the two hours to Haleyville the idea came to me, I am going to turn this jeep into a Float! More on this later. Thursday morning, I had the great pleasure of meeting and talking to the Mayor of Haleyville Ken Sunseri his Father-in-Law was the Mayor of Haleyville and was present at the February 16, 1968, 1st call to 9-1-1. After our conversation Chad Fell from the local newspaper Northwest Alabamian took a photo of the Mayor and I with the replica red 9-1-1 Phone. Mr. Fell wrote a short story on our meeting which was featured in Friday’s edition of the paper as a lead up to the festival. Thursday afternoon was well spent with the Mc Donald brothers from Mc Donald Signs, these guys were awesome! They helped me design and put together the Dispatchers are the 1st, Responders sign and helped me assemble the frame to display it, on the back of the Jeep Gladiator!
Friday morning gave me the opportunity to meet with the Director of the Winston County E9-1-1 Communications Center, Tim Webb. Our conversation covered the history behind the 1st phone call to 9-1-1 and how Mayor Ken Sunseri and he re-enacted the first test call when the County introduced the Next Generation 9-1-1 Technology on October 10, 2017. Executives from INdigital were present to help celebrate the achievement. We enjoyed sharing ideas and strategies for promoting the 9-1-1 Saves Act and I could not leave without inviting him to Saturday evenings Press Conference.
As if the weekend was not cool enough, Saturday evening I was given the opportunity to make a presentation on the 9-1-1 Saves Act in the Haleyville Court Room. Alabama State Representative Tracy Estes, Mayor Ken Sunseri, Haleyville’s Fire Chief, Winston County 9-1-1 Director Tim Webb, Disp. Supervisor Debbie Tidwell, and a few other local First Responders were in attendance. I spoke on the history of the 9-1-1 Saves Act and how quickly the new version of the Bill has gained 84 Co-Sponsors highlighting the importance of gaining more Co-Sponsors adding how significant 290 Co-Sponsors could be to getting the bill passed into law by skipping the Committee process. Another key point I brought up during the conversation, in hope of sparking a conversation about creating a State Law in Alabama. Dispatchers from across the Country have not been sitting idle while waiting for Congress to act. I told State Rep. Tracy Estes that Texas was the first State to reclassify their 9-1-1 Professionals with a State Law, the list of States currently with Laws: Texas 9-1-2019, West Virginia 3-25-2020, Iowa 6-25-2020, Indiana 7-1-2020, California 1-1-2021, Kansas 3-25-2021, Oregon 6/11/21.
Chad Fell from the Northwest Alabamian Paper wrote a Front-page Article detailing our conversation in the Wednesday June 9, 2021, issue. Hopefully this weekend pilgrimage by this old 9-1-1 lifer will be the Spark to getting Alabama to recognize it’s 9-1-1 Professionals and hopefully after reading this account of my efforts to spread the word on the 9-1-1 Saves Act bill you will be inspired to keep the conversation going until all fifty states and the Federal government reclassifies us as the 1st, First Responders that we truly are!
