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Mayor says town's move to operate 911 dispatch will cost $300,000 a year, not the $250,000 saving it announced
Summary
Mayor Jerry Larson told LTV that the town's decision to take over public-safety answering (PSAP) calls will cost town taxpayers about $300,000 annually, contradicting a town press-release claim of $250,000 in savings; he also criticized the town's rollout and training.
Mayor Jerry Larson said a long-standing arrangement had the village answering most township 911 calls for about 40 years, and that the town's recent decision to bring calls into its PSAP has produced higher-than-advertised costs.
"They put out a huge press release saying that they were gonna save the community $250,000 a year by bringing the calls into their own PSAP," Larson said. "Today, we find out that that's not the case. It's actually gonna cost town taxpayers 300,000 a year." The mayor described the discrepancy as a "huge error" in the town's calculations.
Larson criticized the town's operational rollout, saying dispatchers lacked sufficient training, the town's new room was not ready, and the office had not been fully prepared to handle EMD (emergency medical dispatch) and fire/ambulance coordination. He suggested a staged approach would have been preferable: take on 911 calls first, gain proficiency over a two-year window, then assume multi-agency fire/ambulance dispatch contracts.
The interview did not include a response from the town supervisor or the town's emergency-management staff, and the mayor's cost figures were presented as his account in the interview. Larson also said the village historically handled roughly 70% of calls that originated in the township.
The mayor urged readers to treat his cost figures as his claim to be verified with town budget documents and PSAP operational records.
