The City of Plymouth is being asked to chip in nearly $128,000 in order to receive dispatch services from Marshall County. During Monday’s Common Council meeting, Sheriff Matt Hassel discussed a plan to centralize dispatch on a formal basis.
He says that while Marshall County currently provides at least some emergency dispatch services to its municipalities, it’s not actually set up to do so. “We’re not a dispatch center,” he says. “We’re a 911 center. The only dispatching that we are legally binded to is the County Sheriff’s Department. That’s all we’re binded to. 911 is to answer that phone and get that call to whatever emergency service agency responds in that area, and that’s it, then they’re done with it.”
While Marshall County covers 911 service for all its residents, Hassel says that actual dispatch is supposed to be up to individual communities. In Plymouth, the city handles dispatch Monday through Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., while the county provides the service at other times.
Now, Hassel and other county and local government officials are working on a plan to have the county officially take over the service, while sharing the cost with cities, towns, and townships. He says the plan will allow Marshall County to add a fourth dispatcher during peak times, to better handle the number of calls. However, Hassel noted that Bremen has declined to take part in county-wide dispatch.
Plymouth Police Chief David Bacon is in favor of centralized dispatch. He says that having multiple points of contact during emergencies poses a safety issue for his officers. “When we’re running dispatch and we get an unknown accident so that Plymouth Police, Plymouth Fire, and Plymouth EMS go on that, Plymouth Police gets there first. If we need to cancel an ambulance or a firetruck, we call our dispatch, our dispatch calls their dispatch, their dispatch calls Plymouth Fire,” he says. “It’s not needed. Our officers should call Marshall County to cancel that ambulance or firetruck. That’s not the way it is right now.”
To come up with each local government’s share of the cost, Hassel says he looked at each area’s usage, but then had to make a few adjustments. “Once I put all those figures together, I realized that the City of Plymouth could afford it, but none of the other entities were going to be able to afford what it would cost,” Hassel says. “They’re just not that solvent. So when I break it down, basically I made the other towns and townships responsible for 33 percent of what the county pays for its dispatch, and I made Plymouth responsible for 66 percent, simply because Plymouth and Marshall County are the biggest, largest users of the dispatch center.”
However, Plymouth Clerk-Treasurer Jeanine Xaver took issue with the plan, calling it unfair for city taxpayers. “For him to say the city can afford it – in about 10 minutes, we’re going to talk about how your 2017 budget is $2 million over being a balanced budget,” she said. “So for him to do my job and say we can afford it is not fair.”
However, Hassel says that without a county-wide Local Option Income Tax for public safety, options are limited. According to Plymouth’s proposed budget, most of the city’s centralized dispatch payment will come out of the Police Department’s budget, while the rest will come out of the Fire Department’s. Bacon told council members that the change would not result in a significant cost increase.
No action was taken by the Plymouth Common Council Monday. City officials said they hadn’t yet received the proposed contract sent by the Sheriff’s Department.
