Cities, township sue over Trumbull 911 plan

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — The months-long dispute over how 911 calls across Trumbull County will be handled has gone to court.

A coalition of governments, including the cities of Girard, Niles, Hubbard and Newton Falls, plus Liberty Township, sued the Trumbull County commissioners and the county 911 Planning Committee on Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

The suit seeks to block implementation of the 911 plan that was approved by a 3-2 vote Nov. 25 that takes 911 calls away from the dispatching centers in Girard, Hubbard, Newton Falls, Lordstown and Liberty and sends them to the county 911 center in Howland, which will then direct them to the appropriate agency.

The plan establishes two backup dispatching operations — the call- taking operations in Warren and Niles — which will continue to receive their 911 calls directly from the caller.

The plan was set to start into motion as early as Thursday, when the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved the Nov. 25 plan, said Michael Dolhancryk, the county’s 911 director.

Dolhancryk said it will take nine to 12 months to make the plan operational.

The suit seeks an injunction to stop the plan from being implemented.

Officials who run the dispatching centers across the county were sharply divided over how to rewrite the county 911 plan — something PUCO said had to be done by the end of this month in order to receive the $1.5 million PUCO has held in escrow for the county from wireless phone surcharges.

Dolhancryk advocates having 911 calls go through larger dispatching centers such as his because they operate with more than one dispatcher at a time and can better handle emergency situations that involve numerous 911 calls at a time.

Representatives of some of the smaller dispatching operations, some of which operate with one dispatcher at a time, say having the county center receive 911 calls first produces an unnecessary delay and could jeopardize the safety of police officers.

Some say the dispute centers on jobs and money.

Dolhancryk has said the $1.5 million would go primarily toward updating Warren’s and Niles’ dispatching operations and toward the purchase and implementation of software that will allow call takers to better identify the location of wireless phone calls.

Dolhancryk has said the smaller dispatching operations will receive upgrades to their equipment and other benefits from the upgrades to the three other centers.

But the smaller centers were hoping for a larger share of the $1.5 million to update and pay for their dispatching equipment.

The plan does not call for abolishment of the smaller dispatching operations, which still handle nonemergency calls under the plan, Dolhancryk said.

Under the old plan, Trumbull was responsible for modernizing the dispatching equipment in all dispatching centers across the county.

Among the legal issues raised in the lawsuit is the question of whether the 911 Planning Committee was supposed to convene a technical advisory committee before approving a new plan.

The suit says state law calls for that to happen “to [e]nsure that significant changes to a 911 plan are made only after careful consideration of the impact of all changes upon the safety and security of the residents served by the 911 plan.”

The suit says the plan’s changes could affect the safety of residents by causing “delays in dispatching assistance.”

The case is assigned to Judge John M. Stuard.

runyan@vindy.com