Wayne Unveils 2013 Dispatch Service Costs
By STEVEN F. HUSZAI, Daily Record (Wooster, Ohio)
WOOSTER — Meetings to move toward a consolidated dispatch center across Wayne County and to include the city of Ashland have come to a grinding halt.
The issues start and end at financing such a center and its operations.
In the meantime, the Wayne County commissioners established new rates for 2013 with a new philosophy for funding the Wayne County dispatch center.
“To understand the direction we are headed, you need to understand where we’ve been,” Commissioner Scott Wiggam said of the Wooster Area PSAP. “Basically, it was a subsidized program.”
The center dispatches for Smithville, Creston, West Salem, Shreve, Apple Creek, Mount Eaton and Marshallville police departments, and Wooster Township, Canaan Township, Central Fire, Town and Country, Clinton Township, New Pittsburg, Apple Creek, South Central and Mount Eaton fire departments and EMS services.
The Medway Drug Enforcement Agency, Sheriff’s Office and Wayne County Emergency Management Agency also receive service.
Wiggam said for reasons unknown, the smaller villages and townships paid a combined line-item of roughly $26,000 for equipment costs. The county then split the cost of operating the dispatch center (about $1 million) with the city of Wooster, as the largest two users.
But he said beginning in 2013, smaller entities will pay for the full operations of the center. “This is their dispatch too … and they need to have some skin in the game,” Wiggam said.
He added the smaller entities also need to look at their own budgets to see how they can reduce their own dispatch costs.
The smaller entities received their 2013 dispatch rates Aug. 10, which show substantial increases in costs. But as Wiggam noted, villages and townships were not paying for actual services but a small portion of equipment costs.
Instead, in the Aug. 10 letters sent out across Wayne County the commissioners said entities will be billed at the greater of 25 percent the cost of providing services (as generated from the Cleveland State University study of Nov. 2011), or current contract amounts.
The CSU numbers were calculated based on two formulas. For fire agencies, the group used total calls compared to total costs for the dispatching center. With law enforcement agencies, costs were calculated based on population and call for service. Medway was the lone exception and was calculated as a fire agency.
Quotes for 2013 billing, according to the letters, are:
— Smithville: $8,054 ($922.41, allocation for 2012)
— Creston: $7,613 ($1,306.74)
— West Salem: $5,762 ($1,306.74)
— Shreve: $5,276 ($1,306.74)
— Apple Creek: $3,081 ($922.41)
— Mount Eaton: $2,843 ($538.07)
— Marshallville: $1,402 ($922.41)
— Wooster Township: $4,620 ($2,459.75)
— Canaan Township: $2,809 ($1,306.74)
— Central Fire: $3,293 ($2,459.75)
— Town & Country: $2,696 ($2,459.75)
— Clinton Township: $1,841 ($1,306.74)
— New Pittsburg Fire: $1,865 ($1,691.08)
— East Union Fire: $2,844 (same)
— South Central Fire: $1,691 (same)
— Paint Township Fire: $1,691 (same)
Wiggam said the amount for Wooster in 2013 is still being negotiated. Its 2012 contract amount is $435,158. Dispatch’s 2012 appropriations were $1.05 million, with the county picking up $587,356. The total equipment line item for this year is $27,851.
“The reason for this is (for smaller entities) to have equity but also for it to be sustainable for the future,” Wiggam noted.
Some smaller entities expressed their concerns during preliminary meetings regarding consolidation.
“We are evaluating our alternatives,” said Mayor Allen Snyder of Smithville.
He explained the village has been in contact with the other two dispatching centers in the county — Rittman and Orrville — should issues not be resolved with the commissioners.
It should be noted, too, Smithville already received a discount. Its original allocation was set for $9,051, but when Wiggam and Snyder spoke on the phone the commissioner quoted the wrong figure and noted he would stick to the lower figure originally stated.
Snyder noted while the village agrees with the premise it has not paid its fair share, he said it’s “unclear what path the county wants to take.”
He said with the Aug. 10 letter, the county stated it will charge 25 percent of the operations budget as quoted in the CSU study.
“Does that mean they will charge 50 percent the next year? … Our interpretation is they want to charge the full amount of the CSU study,” Snyder said.
In Smithville’s case, the study quoted it should be paying $29,791 if the Wayne County dispatch center were to combine with the city of Ashland.
Snyder has admitted during council meetings that Smithville was probably not paying their fair share. But at the same time, the figures quoted in the study he said are not feasible for the village’s budget.
Wiggam said the goal would be for the smaller entities to close in on their full operational costs, but noted those discussions amongst the commissioners is ongoing. He continued that as the dispatch center grows all entities can begin to recoup their costs.
“The equity situation is important because not all entities in Wayne County use this dispatch center,” Wiggam said. “These are issues that have got to be looked at and addressed.”
Snyder noted “no one at the county has answered our questions” as to the future of the Wayne County center. He also has heard nothing from the sheriff-in-waiting what his take is.
“Our residents are paying taxes already to the county which they have access to … it’s just as if they are not giving our taxpayers credit for what they are already paying to the county,” Snyder said. “If our usage of the system causes them to go over and above the taxes we already pay (for dispatch),” then he could understand the increases.
But as it stands, “At this point in time it’s still up in the air,” whether or not Smithville will continue to be a part of the Wayne County dispatch operation. Snyder said the village will make a decision on its dispatching “relatively soon.”
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