The Colorado Legislature authorized the creation of emergency telephone authorities. The legislation allowed for governing bodies in Colorado to join through intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to provide emergency telephone services.

November 14th, the cities, towns, county, fire and hospital districts in Larimer County signed an IGA forming the Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority (LETA). It was decided in discussions between the County Administrator, Town Managers, Fire Chiefs, and EMS Chief/ Director that the LETA Board should consist of equal representation of the government partners. Leadership at the time decided that the County should have one seat on the Board, and each City should have one seat. The towns would share two seats, the fire district would share one seat, and the hospital district would share one seat. This equated to a 7-member board representing all government partners. The LETA Board set their surcharge at $.50.

LETA created their first MSAG, established call routing decisions, and ESN boundaries. During the meeting’s it was decided to route 911 calls based on Fire/EMS boundaries vs. Law boundaries. Routing 911 calls based on law boundaries is standard across the nation. In speaking with individuals involved in this decision the historical facts reveal that the decision was made based on staffing levels between Larimer County and Fort Collins. At the time, Fort Collins had a higher staffing level and it was perceived they would be able to handle the 911call volume. The LETA Board lowered their surcharge to $.45.

During this time, LETA hired their first contract employees, an Administrative Assistant – Debbie Tellez, and a Master Street Address Guide Technician – Lorie Digliani.

• LETA went live with an Enhanced 911 System.
• LETA decided to move the accounting, budget, and attorney advisement from the County to being managed directly by LETA. LETA hired Attorney John Frey.

LETA hired two additional contract employees, Willy Geyer and Ron Anderson to maintain Call Boxes.

LETA revised the IGA to amend the powers of the Authority, and their operational procedures with regard to budget and funding. The amendment also added Windsor/ Severance Fire District and Colorado State University as a signatory to the IGA.

LETA hired Jennifer Anderson as a contract employee to oversee the EMD program.

LETA revised the IGA to include the Towns of Windsor and Johnstown as signatories to the IGA. LETA decides to terminate the contract with the call box technicians and to contract with Tellez Corporation separately for these services.

LETA contracts with Compass Com to create a county- wide 911 centerline for the routing of Phase II Wireless calls. LETA terminates the position of EMD coordinator.

LETA moves the GIS contract from Compass Com to the City of Fort Collins.

LETA hires an Executive Director to oversee the operation. LETA eliminated the contract position for managing the MSAG. LETA establishes office space at the Loveland Police Department. LETA joined with three other 911 Authorities for a joint lawsuit against Qwest. The lawsuit claimed billing was incorrect for the 911 tariffed lines. LETA also started the replacement process for the voice logging records at each PSAP. This project was complete in 2007.

LETA eliminated the Administrative Assistant contract employee position. Qwest settled the lawsuit and LETA received credit on their networking charges for $226,811.00.

The 911 Task Force worked with Qwest on the rewrite of the tariff. From the rewrite, LETA saved 30% on their monthly bill with Qwest

• LETA moves their office to Fort Collins at a location that supports temporary office staff through office evolution. This allowed LETA to have one full time employee and then access to administrative support as needed through office evolutions.
• LETA worked with the Task Force on legislation to capture prepaid and VOIP surcharge on phone line. The measured passed with VOIP phones required to remit the 91-1- surcharge.
• LETA released an RFP for a new emergency notification system. The process ended with LETA collaborating with Everbridge for these services. This project ran from April – August of 2008.
• LETA hires a new contract employee to maintain LETA’s call boxes, Stream speed technologies.
• LETA collaborates with Pictometry, a company that captures oblique imagery. LETA has oblique imagery captured county wide to provide to the first responders, dispatchers, and other government partners.

• Office Evolutions leaves the LETA Building in Fort Collins.
• LETA worked with the 911 Task Force on legislation to capture the 911 surcharge on prepaid wireless phones and phone cards. The legislation was adopted in 2010.
• LETA applied for the Federal 911 Act Grant and was one of four Counties to be awarded a Grant for their Next Gen 911 Project. LETA received, in December of 2011, $197,500 in grant funds.
• LETA establishes a MOU with Thompson Valley EMS for EMD training. This engagement allows the newly hired dispatchers in Larimer County to receive EMD training locally, on an as needed basis.
• LETA decides to project management and provide initial funding for a statewide data-sharing project. This project allows all police records management systems to share data for investigations and other law enforcement queries.

LETA rents office space from Thompson Valley EMS in Loveland. LETA works extensively on a next generation 9-1-1 project (NG911) which includes building a dedicated 9-1-1 network, and replacing equipment at the PSAPs (CPE) to support NG911.

• LETA hires two additional staff members, an Operations Manager and a Technical Manager. These staff members allow LETA to invest more time in various programs and projects. LETA replaces their voice logger equipment to ensure capability with NG911 recording and IP Motorola Radio recording.
• LETA re-flies the Pictometry imagery and targets the capturing of the burn scar area from the High Park Fire.

• LETA works with their Emergency Alert System Provider to redesign the alerting system. LETA continues to work on the NG911 network and CPE equipment deployments. LETA strengthens their presence and controls in the EMD program.
• LETA re-flies the Pictometry imagery and targets the capturing of the flood area from the September 2013 Floods.

• LETA completes the NG911 project and on July 17 2014 LETA is able to receive text to 9-1-1 from citizens at all of their PSAPs.
• LETA hires additional contract employees, a Physician Advisor and a part time public educator.

The LETA board raises the 9-1-1 surcharge in Larimer County, Colorado from $.45 per month, per phone line to $.70 per month, per phone line effective January 1, 2019.

LETA was able to secure a facility for their operations. In partnership with Larimer County, LETA purchased a new building and was able to close on the facility January of 2020. Also in 2019, LETA worked on 911 legislation to address various issues in Title 29, was engaged on federal 9-1-1 discussions, and FCC 9-1-1 discussions on 9-1-1 location. 

• LETA completed the purchase of their new facility and worked with Beacon Construction on tenant finishes. The new facility will support the LETA general offices, a backup Emergency Communications Center (ECC), and meeting spaces. 
• LETA went live with a new website to support emergency alerts throughout Larimer County. The website is www.nocoalert.org. 2020 also brought a response from LETA to support our health partners during the COVID pandemic and specifically in deploying an Emerging Infectious Disease Surveillance tool in the ECCs. 
• August started the response to the numerous fires that impacted Larimer County. LETA was engaged in infrastructure needs, emergency alerts, managing the NOCOALERT map, and supporting our citizens through Text Request. 

LETA opened the backup Emergency Communications Center as an active backup center for all five 911 centers located in Larimer County. Without the active backup center, 911 personnel would have to operate in an abbreviated environment with limitations to their ability to use the same technology that is available at their 911 center. 

• LETA adopted ReachWell to support language translation for all Emergency Alerts. Download the ReachWell APP, search for NOCOALERT and select the language you would prefer to receive emergency alerts. LETA will push all emergency alerts in English to the ReachWell APP, the APP will translate the emergency alert to the language of your choice. LETA is the first agency in the Nation to provide a comprehensive Language Translation for emergency alerts.  
• In 2022 LETA also went live with Prepared. Prepared allows the 911 personnel to receive live video and photos from 911 callers. Prepared also allows the 911 personnel to real time share the live video and photos received by a caller to the first responders.  
• LETA also hired a dedicated GIS mapping person to focus on the maps used in the computer aided dispatch system and the mobile map.  
• LETA purchased a compact rapid deployable (CRD) that provides dedicated cellular connection for first responders working an incident. The CRD provides connectivity in areas where infrastructure is damage, infrastructure is absent, or infrastructure is overwhelmed by volume.  LETA houses the CRD and is ready for a deployment of the asset 24/7/365.

In 2023 LETA went live with American Sign Language translation for all emergency alerts. LETA was the first in the State and 2nd in the Nation to be able to offer this level of accessibility to our community.