At Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, the Board of Commissioners will hear a municipal order to enter into a new agreement for the operations and funding of the 911 Emergency Operations Center.
According to City Manager Nate Pagan, this is a routine procedure with no changes made to central dispatch.
“They historically operate on three-year terms, so this is just a new term,” Pagan said. “There is nothing new or different at all.”
The agreement for central dispatch is shared between the City of Owensboro and Daviess County Fiscal Court. At one time City and County officials intended to construct a new building to house the center, but funds were and continue to remain unavailable. Instead, in 2009, the two governments consolidated the dispatch operations and 911 operations center, headquartering a combined facility at Owensboro Police Department.
According to Pagan, although a stand alone dispatch center was discussed initially, it’s not on the radar anymore, which is why the 2009 agreement is resigned every three years.
Owensboro and Daviess County split the start-up costs of the center equally and proportionally share the operation costs based on call volume over the last three years.
The City will pay 73 percent of operating costs, while the County will pay 27 percent, based upon the number of computer aided dispatch calls generated by city police and fire departments versus number generated by county sheriff and fire departments in the last three years. Operating costs include equipment acquisition, personnel, liability and technology upgrades.
The Center provides all dispatching and emergency communications services for the city and county, including 911 dispatching, emergency and non-emergency dispatching for the police, sheriff, city fire department, county fire departments, animal control, and coroner’s office.
