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Gadsden approves agreement to move 911 dispatch to Etowah County Communications District
Summary
The council approved a contract to transfer city dispatchers into the Etowah County Communications District, authorizing monthly payments of $70,833.33 and a one-time payment not to exceed $640,000 to facilitate relocation to the county 911 building; the city’s representatives said the move should streamline call routing.
The Gadsden City Council adopted a resolution authorizing an agreement with the Etowah County Communications District to relocate the city’s emergency dispatch operations to the county’s 911 building and to fold city dispatchers into the county communications staff.
Councilman Wilson described the financial terms on the record: a monthly payment of $70,833.33 to the communications district and a one-time payment not to exceed $640,000 to facilitate the relocation of dispatch services to the Etowah County 911 building. “We are going to transfer our dispatchers and incorporate them into the Etowah County Communications District,” Wilson said, adding that the city will contribute an amount equal to the cost of those employees’ salaries.
City officials said the change will consolidate servers, routers and radio/tower assets countywide and remove a step in call routing that occasionally required transferring a call from the county center to Gadsden dispatchers. Council members said that could reduce routing delays in some emergencies. Chief Will Reid (now head of the Etowah County Communications District) and council representatives were identified in discussion as responsible for operational oversight.
Council members moved to suspend rules and consider the matter as new business; the motion to consider passed by voice vote and the council subsequently voted to adopt the resolution. The transcript records the motion, a second, and that the motion carried; the recorded vote does not list individual member votes.
Why it matters: The agreement shifts Gadsden’s dispatch staffing and equipment oversight to the county-level communications district, creating a single call-routing operation for the county and the city. Council members said the change is expected to eliminate some inter-agency transfer delays during emergency calls.
Financial terms and staffing: The transcript records a recurring monthly payment of $70,833.33 and a one-time payment not to exceed $640,000 to the Etowah County Communications District; the city will also contribute an amount equal to the absorbed dispatchers’ salaries going forward. Another council member said the arrangement will generate $250,000 in annual savings, a figure attributed to a council speaker and not documented in a contract excerpt in the transcript.
