HEADLTON, Okla. -- Even though voters have spoken the great debate in Healdton continues over who should be answering 9-1-1 calls. We decided to take a closer look at the arguments on both sides. As Robin Beal reports, the proposal to let the county answer those calls is still a divisive issue.

It was a mixed reaction on the day after the election in Healdton. A proposal to join Carter County’s E-911 system was once again rejected by the voters, but this time by a very narrow margin. So it is no surprise there are very strong feelings on both sides of the issue.

Rick Pender was a supporter of the implementing the E-911 system.

"I was pretty disappointed. I was kind of hoping it would pass,"

Opponent Tom McNeill was elated with the results of Tuesday’s election.

"Well I was happy to see the results."

Pender says he believes the cost was the primary reason that voters failed to approve the measure for now the third time.

"I'm on the council, and the citizens want to keep it, so we'll keep it. We just got to figure out a way to pay for it."

McNeill begs to differ, saying that charging the names of streets, which would be required if the E-911 system was approved, was the reason voters again said ‘no’ in Healdton.

"It was the street name change that they voted against. Hundreds of citizens would have been affected in changing their addresses on all of their stationary, and if they had business cards like I do and the insurance agency next door to me has, we would have had to change all of our stationary, all of our cards, and it is just a confusing type of situation," McNeill said.

Pender disagrees, saying, “People are worried about changing addresses here in the town but the people that's coming to get them are not from this area you know, SOAS is based in Ardmore, we got an ambulance here, and they were under the assumption they keep the same address, everybody knows where they live -- but the people that's coming to get them don't live here," said Pender.

"Sometime in the future that it may be inevitable, that Healdton does join, but I think that the citizens of Healdton should have input on the names of their streets," McNeill says.

Pender says he thinks the street name issue is a small one, in his eyes.

“What's a few numbers, if it saves somebody's life?"

For now, Healdton will keep its aging 9-1-1 system, even though the city loses money just by maintaining it. Whether or not it will appear on the ballot again anytime soon is anyone's guess.