The Lyon County Emergency Communications Center announced the launch of Prepared Live — a software that enables Video-to-911 capabilities — in the communications center. According to a written release, Prepared is a software that enables LCECC’s 9-1-1 communications center to “livestream, receive multimedia, and receive location from mobile callers in real-time.” LCECC director Roxanne Van Gundy said the technology will “significantly improve” the center’s “ability to effectively and efficiently respond to emergencies in the community.” “Kansas has always been a nationwide leader in NG 911 services. With advanced location abilities, Text to and Text from 911, translation services and now Video-to-911, centers from around the state will be able to provide citizens with second to none emergency services,” she said. “As this is a huge shift in the way we do business, we are slowly introducing this tool in our center with limited call types. We will continue to expand on the ways we can use Video-to-911 as our employees feel more at ease with this process. Their comfort level in viewing images and navigating this system is my number one priority.” Van Gundy said participation in a video call during a call to 911 is “completely voluntary” and consent of the caller is required. If the caller consents, they will receive a livestream link via text from the communications officer, enabling them to activate live video upon click. It’s important to note that the video call function also does not provide Lyon County Emergency Communications Center with access to the contents or settings of a caller’s phone. This launch follows several weeks of preparation and training to ensure that our dispatchers and our team are able to properly utilize the software, according to Van Gundy. Working side-by-side with Prepared’s customer success team, we have created and adopted policies to ensure that Prepared Live is used effectively in various scenarios. Prepared was originally founded as a company focused on school safety “with a passion for improving public safety.” In creating an app to help mitigate school emergencies, the team discovered that valuable data is lost in existing 9-1-1 processes and set out to address the problem. Since public launch in October 2021, Prepared Live has helped protect over 2 million American citizens in cities around the country. To learn more about Prepared and Prepared Live, visit Prepared911.com.
Source: Emporia Gazette

Simmons Pet Food announced the addition of a fourth high-speed production line in Emporia as part of a $115 million investment on two Kansas facilities Monday afternoon. The investment includes a new pet food distribution center in Edgerton, and the start of operations at a second production line in Dubuque, Iowa. Simmons president Scott Salmon said the announcement comes as part of Simmons Pet Food’s $500 million strategic growth plan. “I would say the range is actually $115 – $150 million, because to do this, we’re not only making investments in Emporia, we have some investments in Edgerton as well,” Salmon told The Gazette. “Ultimately, what we’re doing is adding a fourth production line to the plant in Emporia that will add [177 jobs] that will pay between $25-30 an hour. We’re excited about that.”
Source: Emporia Gazette