PERTH COUNTY -- People who live in Perth County con now dial 911 if they need help. The emergency call system has been working for just over a month.

Every person who has a phone is hooked up to the system, which officially started January 3. That covers about 75,000 people, when you include the 11 townships, the two towns of Listowel and Mitchell, the Village of Milverton, and the cities of Stratford and St. Marys.

There was a two-week test period before January 3 and so far there haven't been any major problems..... says Dave Hanly, Director of the Planning Department for Perth County. His department has been working on the project since 1993.

"It has been a major undertaking.... a lot of work," says Hanly.

If a person needs emergency help, they dial 911 on their phone. It doesn't matter if it's a touch tone phone or a rotary dial phone. It doesn't matter what telephone company you have. The call will go to a Central Emergency Report Bureau (CERB), where it will be answered by a Bell Canada Answering Service Operator. You will be asked if you need police, fire, or ambulance. If you say police, the call will automatically be put through to the police station closest to where you are.

The operator knows which station because your address automatically shows up when you call. The person at the police station will then ask for your address and you give them the new address that has been made for you for the 911 system.

Every piece of property in Perth County has been given a new address to help make the system work the best and the fastest. People calling from Stratford and St. Marys use the the addresses they already have.

If for some reason you are not able to talk after you have dialed 911, then an emergency team will automatically be sent to where you are. An example would be if you are having a heart attack. You dial 911 and then before the call is answered, you pass out. Because your address automatically shows up at the answering centre, an emergency team will still be able to find you quickly.

The only problems so far, are from people who are calling on a cellular phone from a car, or for people who are calling from a party line. In both these cases, it may take longer for a dispatch operator to figure out exactly where you are if you are not able to talk.

"It doesn't mean you won't be found, it just means the response time could be slower," says Hanly.

He says they are working with Bell Canada about the cell phone problems and the technology is there for it to work better, it will just take more time. He says people who are on a party line and want more information or want to change to a single line, should call Bell Canada for more information.

If your emergency call is for help from the fire department, it may also take a few extra minutes. This is because not every fire station has its own dispatcher. Some of the fire stations go through a central dispatcher area, like Stratford, so it may mean transferring the call a couple times before the fire station closest to you gets the call. Again, Hanly says these are just a few "glitches" that were expected to come up when something this new and big was set up. He says they will all be worked-out in time.

People living in Listowel may have to worry about calling 911 when they don't need to. All Listowel phone numbers start with 291. If you don't wait for the dial tone before pressing the 2, your call may end up going to the 911 centre, especially if you happened to be dialing a number like 291-1770. Hanly says they will be connecting with people in Listowel to make sure they are careful when dialing.

There are a lot of things to know about the 911 system -- like when to use it, what to tell the operator after the call is made, and how not to abuse the system. The Planning Department has put together a 16-page newspaper that includes a lot of this information. This information package was sent to people's homes through the daily and weekly newspapers. If anyone didn't get one, they can call the Perth County Office at 519-271-0531 to get a copy.

The project has been in the works for over three years, but most of the time and money was for the new addresses given to all the township properties. Planners had to make sure the new addresses were easy to remember. They also had to make sure the system was designed so emergency teams can find properties as fast as possible.

All the roads that go east and west have been renamed "Lines", and all the roads that go north and south have been renamed ."Roads". "Lines" are numbered 1 to 93, with 1 starting in the south end of the county and 93 ending in the north end. "Roads" are numbered 101 to 183 with 101 starting in the east end of the county and 183 ending in the west end of the county. Each piece of property has a four-digit number, starting from 1000 up to 9,999.

These are the addresses you use when making a 911 call, but for other purposes you can still use your mailing addresses, like RR 2, Listowel, or lot 4, Concession 6. Hanly says they are working with Canada Post and one day it may mean the only address you have to use is the one made for the 911 system.

PERTH COUNTY -- If you are a property owner in Perth County, you might be wondering how much it cost you to now be able to dial 911 for emergency help.

If you live outside St. Marys or Stratford, some of your property taxes paid for numbering all the properties and putting up signs (People in Stratford and St. Marys already had their property numbered.) Over three years, this cost about $240,000 or about $7.50 to each property owner.

It will cost all residents of Perth County about $90,000 a year for the Bell Answering System that takes all the 911 calls. This works out to about $ 1.30 a year for every property owner. Again, this will come from part of your property taxes.

People will also see a slight increase in their phone bill. It will work out to be a little over $4 a year. This covers the cost of running the 911 network system and keeping phone line upgraded and serviced. People don't have to worry about making any changes to their phones or their phone companies, as Bell Canada is working with all the phone companies in the county to make it work.