CLARK COUNTY — The City of Springfield and Clark County have come back to the table to talk about both entities taking part in a new combined 9-1-1 dispatch center.
The idea has been in the works since the 1990′s, and over the years – negotiations have fallen off.
The most recent was fall 2019. At that time, the city backed out of the project, citing concerns with who would oversee the center and how city dispatchers would have been treated when it came to seniority among other dispatch staff.
Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck told News Center 7′s Jenna Lawson that after the fall, small conversations between the city and county continued up until this spring.
Just recently the city and county have put together a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ that outlines how the dispatch center would be run.
The City of Springfield would contract services with the Clark County Sheriff, who would oversee the center. All dispatchers, regardless of city or county, would have a job at the new center as county employees if they chose to stay.
Dispatchers would also maintain their seniority they had acquired prior to the consolidation.
“I am happy we’ve been able to get to this point because this is probably the most advanced the conversations have gone,” Heck said.
The memorandum does not mean the merger is final. There are several steps that will follow before anything is official, including acceptance of the memorandum by City of Springfield commissioners, as well as contract negotiations with the county dispatcher’s union.
Clark County Commissioner Melanie Flax Wilt said she’s glad the two organizations could come to a common ground and is hopeful that they will see the project to its fruition.
She said combining dispatch services would save taxpayers money and result in improved emergency services responses for all county residents.
“I look at Clark County as a whole, and Springfield is part of that,” she said. “We’re going to be better if we have one system for everyone that lives here.”
The new $5 million dollar dispatch center is currently under construction on East Home Road.
It will have state-of-the-art technology and include video and text technology that people can use to interact with dispatchers.
It’s possible the center will be completed by the end of this year.
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