911 calls rerouted

By Jemi Chew

FALMOUTH — Pendleton County will no longer have its own 911 dispatch center starting June 15. This target date has been pushed back several times and is still open to change.

After this date, all 911 calls will be routed through Kentucky State Police Post 6 located in Dry Ridge, Grant County.

Discussions regarding the merger between the local 911 dispatch center and KSP started last year, and the decision to merge was finalized in October during a Pendleton County Fiscal Court meeting.

Pendleton County Fiscal Court’s concern was the rising costs associated with maintaining the local 911 dispatch center, which is due to several factors such as increasing state regulations and the county’s inability to compete with salaries offered by other localities.

The merger will save taxpayer dollars but cost Pendleton County its local dispatch center.

Seven full-time and three part-time dispatchers will lose their jobs. The job losses of these dispatchers who have dedicated years to the service have brought this issue into the spotlight.

“Emotions were high with the dispatchers,” Angie Wright, head dispatcher, said. “We’re a small community and we all love our jobs.”

According to Wright, only two dispatchers are considering joining KSP dispatch, and one of the two still has not fully made up their mind.

Additionally, one of the biggest concerns for Pendleton County regarding the merger is the quality and prioritization of services to the county now that it is losing experts who have local knowledge and are personally invested in the safety of their community.

However, the “consolidation” dilemma is not unique to Pendleton County. Money is scarce and only grows scarcer along with manpower. Many 911 local dispatch centers across the state have merged or considered merging with KSP or other counties to form a regional center.

Quality, prioritization

In 2005 Grant County merged with KSP Post 6, which is the dispatch center that Pendleton County will be under.

In a previous interview with the Outlook, Grant County Judge Executive Chuck Dills said that he could not imagine going back to having a local dispatch center. He also said that smaller dispatch centers cannot compete with larger dispatch centers for grants, resources and technology.

Russ Clark, director at Bluegrass 911 Communications and a member of the 2023 KY 911 Advisory council, said he believes that regardless of financial or manpower ability, “consolidation is the way to go” instead of having just one local dispatch center per county as it results in better resources and technologies — which means better quality. His dispatch center oversees four counties, including Garrard and Lincoln.

Clark said that he personally knows that the people at KSP who are involved in training dispatchers are qualified. However, ultimately his county chose to merge dispatch with another county instead of KSP because KSP’s price for dispatch was too steep.

Will McCoy, director of Trimble County EMS, said that Trimble County struggled with the quality of KSP dispatch services for a while, though he attributes that to a lack of staff who were not well trained and said that it is much better now. His county’s dispatch services are under KSP Post 5.

The main problem is that the price the county is paying to KSP for dispatch services has increased from $49,500 to $123,000 after a reassessment by KSP showed that the data obtained during the original takeover was inadequate and required a cost adjustment.

KSP prices

According to McCoy, Trimble County was given no warning for the price increase and as a result they are now looking to merge dispatch with another county instead.

When asked for his opinion on Pendleton County’s merger with KSP dispatch, McCoy said that he personally believes it was a poor decision.

“You lose control over policies and procedures and have very little say as to changes in pricing later down the road,” McCoy said.

Clark also agreed that a merger would lead to less control. Additionally, he explained that in 2008, it would have cost his county $300,000 to consolidate with KSP and all wireless money would go to KSP.

Merging dispatch with another county instead of KSP would also protect local jobs in addition to saving money — it was Garrard County’s best choice, according to Clark.

So why did Pendleton County choose to merge with KSP dispatch instead of another county? There was no choice. No other county wanted to merge, according to dispatcher Matt Sorrell.

Pendleton County Judge Executive David Fields confirmed that KSP was Pendleton County’s only choice at the time. This was similar to Trimble County’s situation. McCoy said he was told that their county’s local dispatch merged with KSP in the past because it was the only choice.

Merging dispatch with another county is also a difficult process. Currently, McCoy’s county is still in discussion with other counties regarding consolidating dispatch services.

Moving Forward

The target date has been pushed back multiple times since the decision to merge was made in October. Sorrell said that this was due to technical issues and Wright said that local dispatch has been working with KSP to ensure a smooth transition between the dispatch centers that accounts for technology and communication.

There have been concerns about how dispatch will function if the target date is pushed back again as dispatch costs will not be included in the fiscal court budget. Fields said that the plan is to have the merger completed before that happens.