City of Columbia Falls stays with combined 911 center

By HEIDI DESCH/Hungry Horse News

The Columbia Falls City Council on Monday decided to stay with its current commitment to a combined 911 center with Flathead County and other cities.

All three cities and Flathead County in 1999 signed an interlocal agreement to facilitate a combined 911 dispatch center. The entities have since been working to come to an agreement about how to facilitate a center.

Last month the 911 advisory board submitted a resolution to the cities and County asking them to approve the agreement, which includes a commitment to a funding formula.

Columbia Falls voted to table the resolution earlier this month. On Monday the Council voted to bring the resolution off the table and it then died for a lack of motion.

Part of the resolution included a funding formula that showed Columbia Falls' share of operating the center at about $89,000 annually. That formula is also part of the interlocal agreement. Columbia Falls will stay committed to the center unless it designates otherwise. The operation cost will still have to be approved as part of the City's budget at a later date.

Mark Peck, Flathead County 911 director, spoke with the Council on Monday to address their concerns.

"This project is the consolidation of our emergency services. This is the most important project we'll undertake in the next 10 to 15 years," he said.

Currently, dispatching 911 calls comes from several different sources. Calls may come in through the County and then be dispatched out to the cities or be directly answered by the cities.

Fire Chief Bob Webber told the Council he supports joining the system.

"I think it's vital we get on board with this," he said.

Webber said 20 years ago he toured dispatch centers that were ahead of where local dispatch centers are currently.

"Coming from a place that is that far ahead and this (dispatch system) is like stepping back into the stone age," he said. "I think this is going to save lives."

He noted that recently the County has stopped dispatching the Columbia Falls Fire Department to strictly medical calls because it can't determine which are appropriate for the department to respond to.

Webber said often the fire department is able to get to the scene quicker than the ambulance service.

"Not being dispatched to these calls any more — as a rescuer it's terrible we're not getting calls," he said.

Peck told the council that the 911 board is looking at three major projects: a new building, a new radio system and a whole new computerized dispatch system.

He said the computer aided dispatch system would be able to track emergency responders all over the county.

For example, if one ambulance is tied up on a call, then the computer system will automatically know which other ambulance might be near-by to respond to the call.

Peck said currently dispatchers have to rely on their own memory 80 percent of the time to know who should respond.

"In a county this size that's hard … it's a disaster waiting to happen," he said.

The center would take over all 911 calls and dispatch for the city. That would include after-hours calls for emergencies the City Public Works department might respond to.

The center is proposed to be located near Glacier High School in Kalispell.

He said the board is "95 percent" closed on land for the building.

The location, he noted, would provide proximity to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Flathead National Forest Service buildings, which would be important particularly when dealing with wildland fire incidents. The 911 center would be the regional hub for a state-wide radio system that is being considered.

Funding for the building is not part of the funding formula.

Peck said that funding would have to come from a voter-approved levy or from loans obtained by the county.

The cities would likely transition into joining the center. The earliest that the city would begin paying for services would be July 2010.

For Columbia Falls, there is still some concerns to be answered.

The city currently uses its dispatchers to monitor its jail. Without the dispatchers the city would likely have to shut down the jail or continuing paying personnel at the jail. Another option is to transport inmates back and forth to the county facility.

The increase in cost may not be something the city is able to afford.

The City Council's public safety committee plans to meet with Webber, Police Chief Dave Perry and City Manager Bill Shaw to further discuss remaining issues.