OPINION: FEW OPTIONS - Money is at core of E911 debate The debate over whether to switch Paducah-McCracken Countys 911 dispatching responsibilities from a local service to the Kentucky State Police continues. The move would save money, although how much it would save has become part of the debate. Paducah Fire Chief Steve Kyle and Police Chief Brandon Barnhill are on record as opposing the idea. So is West McCracken Fire District Chief Donald Elrod. But McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden, County Commissioner Jerry Beyer and Emergency Management Director Jerome Mansfield favor the switch to KSP. Kyle and Barnhill elaborated on their position before the Paducah City Commission last Tuesday, and we were struck by some of their comments. Barnhill told the commission, Unfortunately, whats been talked about the most is dollars and cents, which should not be the priority in this decision. What should be the priority is what is the best service to you â ¦ residents and people coming into this community. We find ourselves in disagreement. We think dollars and cents is properly the priority of this discussion, albeit in context. The E911 services money woes are after all what started this conversation. And in that context the discussion needs to be not one of what kind of whistles and bells the local police and fire agencies would like to have, but rather, what level of service the people of the community can be reasonably asked to support. The E911 service is funded by a fee assessed against local telephone landlines. That funding is in decline as a growing number of residents cut the cord and rely solely on cellphones for communication. So to maintain the current level of service, new funding sources would have to be found. One idea that has been making the rounds is a fee assessed against electric meters to replace the slippage in fees from telephone landlines. The fee itself would be modest, but in the context of the ongoing Paducah Power System rate controversy, we cant imagine anything more politically toxic than that idea. The other option is to contract out the dispatching responsibilities to the Kentucky State Police in Mayfield. KSP already handles police and fire dispatching for the city of Mayfield, as well as numerous other city, county and state agencies in far western Kentucky. The local E911 board currently spends $1.6 million a year to operate its service. The KSP dispatching contract would cost about $690,000 (weve seen estimates of $686,000 and $698,000 in recent discussions). Barnhill and Kyle argue that the overall savings arent as substantial as heralded. Kyle says that even if the city and county go with the KSP contract, other costs associated with the local side of the service will mean $1.3 million still will be spent in total. Thats still a savings of $300,000 a year or almost 20 percent. Like it or not, we think the funding issue drives this discussion, and the question is not what is the best service we could have if funding were not an issue. Rather, the question is how do we provide adequate service with the resources at hand. As City Commissioner Carol Gault noted at Tuesdays meeting, with the E911 board split on this question, it almost certainly will fall to the city commission and fiscal court to decide how it is resolved. We continue to believe the contract with KSP makes sense given the financial resources and outlook involved in this decision.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:01:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015