Navajo County is moving forward with plans to apply Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to the creation of a regional dispatch center.
The regional center has been in the works for years, with the county coordinating an effort to consolidate emergency dispatch services for police, fire and ambulance services throughout most of the county. If successful, the center is expected to save tax dollars by eliminating services duplicated in jurisdictions throughout the county and to improve services by obtaining updated equipment that relies on the latest technology.
To date the biggest barrier to creating a regional dispatch center has been the cost. Holbrook officials balked at an agreement that did not specify the annual costs for replacing equipment, which could have potentially added $60,000 to dispatch costs during the current fiscal year. The city already contracts with the county for such services at a rate of $110,000 per year. The new contract rate offered was $170,000, but the county and other potential dispatch partners are renegotiating a potential agreement.
Start-up costs for a regional dispatch center mainly include replacing the existing outdated equipment at the sheriff’s office. The CDBG grant being sought by the county would cover about $369,000 of those costs. The Board of Supervisors approved the grant funds application as part of the consent agenda on May 26. Navajo County will be required to set aside and contribute $88,820 as matching funds to the grant, if it is awarded.
In past years block grant funds have been used for community facilities and public services, such as improvements to senior centers and assistance with the purchase of transportation vans. The funds can be used for public infrastructure, however, and that is the plan for this year’s award. Regardless of when or if the regional center becomes a reality, county dispatch equipment must be replaced soon. The new equipment is critical, however, for creating a dispatch center that can serve all of the emergency agencies in the county.
According to Navajo County Sheriff KC Clark, the existing dispatch consoles are more than 10 years old and with the fast-moving improvements in technology, they are already obsolete. He also noted it is difficult to obtain parts for repairs. Clark equated the leaps in dispatch technology to the advances in cell phones over the same time period, noting that a 10-year old cell phone is antiquated by today’s standards.
While waiting to see whether funds will be awarded for new equipment, the county is continuing to negotiate and plan with other agencies to create the centralized dispatch center. There must be enough agencies on board to make the plan cost-effective. Although Holbrook City Council members were not comfortable with the costs outlined in the agreement and were one of the lone holdouts in signing off on the proposal, they indicated a strong willingness to participate once the numbers were better outlined.
“We do want to move forward with this. We do want to be part of this, but we just need more solid numbers,” then Holbrook Mayor Jeff Hill said when the council discussed the agreement last year.
