Webster County 9-1-1 coordinator warns of E-9-1-1 fund shortfall after state surcharge changes

Brian Hitchcock, communications director and E-9-1-1 coordinator for the Webster County Sheriff's Office, told supervisors the E-9-1-1 fund faces a near-term shortfall after the state increased its share of the cellular surcharge and reassigned certain fees to counties. Hitchcock said the state's changes amount to roughly $36,000 less revenue for the county this year, and that other earlier reserve distributions the county counted on were retained by the state.

Hitchcock said the E-9-1-1 revenue picture shows anticipated receipts of about $345,000 against total expenses of about $416,000, producing a projected deficit of roughly $71,000. He noted the fund balance is about $669,000 but warned that bond payments and capital obligations will sharply reduce that cushion.

The coordinator also described operational and capital costs that constrain the fund: repeated Frontier phone-service outages (seven outages in two months, four longer than 24 hours) prompted plans to migrate the county's nonemergency trunk and alarm lines to a county-hosted on-site solution, which Hitchcock said could save about $952 per month. He identified recurring expenses including an annual Motorola radio-system payment of roughly $65,000, Central Square computer-aided dispatch/records-management fees near $50,000, and a previously issued radio-system bond of about $975,000 with an annual repayment figure cited at $121,875 over a roughly 10-year schedule.

Hitchcock described ongoing efforts to reduce cellular-card fees that connect squad-car mobile data terminals (a Verizon line currently at $1,200/month possibly eligible for a federal program that would reduce it to $600/month). Supervisors said they intend to raise the issue with state legislators in Des Moines to seek relief or policy fixes for the surcharge changes that shifted revenue away from local dispatch centers.