Although an 84-cent surcharge for the 911 safety phone service will appear on March 1 telephone bills for DeKalb County residents, actual 911 service will not begin for another 18 to 24 months.

The DeKalb County Emergency Telephone Safety Board must provide addresses for more than 30,000 DeKalb County phone numbers before the 911 system can be installed.

“We’re waiting for the board to return information to us so we can identify who to charge the surcharge,” said Jerry Anderson, Contel adviser to the board.

After matching addresses and phone numbers, the board will establish a master street address guide. The guide will put all phone numbers into zones so dispatchers can contact police, firefighters or paramedics in the proper zone to assist the caller.

“Things are going real well, real good,” said Capt. Jim Laben of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, who is the safety board chairman. “We’re right on track with the main project.

“We’re about 95 or 98 percent finished with the phone numbers. We’ll be done hopefully by next week,” Laben said.

After matching the numbers and addresses, the board will inform Contel, which will then identify whom to charge the 84-cent fee. NIU students in residence halls will not be charged, but off-campus students and some NIU administration phone lines will.

Paperwork for the 911 system should be completed by mid-February and the information ready to send to Contel, Anderson said. “We’re progressing fairly well in DeKalb County,” he said.

In addition to DeKalb, Genoa, Sycamore and Sandwich will receive the public safety answering point for the system. It is this enhanced version of basic 911 that requires the search for matched phone numbers and addresses.

Phone numbers of residents living on the county borders “are a small problem,” said Sgt. Bob McMorrow of the DeKalb Police Department. The reason for the problem is some DeKalb County phone numbers have the same exchanges as those of bordering counties.

Despite the work, McMorrow still feels the 911 system will be effective. “It’ll provide a real fine opportunity to add another dimension for safety,” he said.

The 911 service will work from any phone in the county, including pay phones. By dialing 911, the address and phone number of the origin of the call will automatically come up on computers to direct police to the correct location.