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Trumbull to handle Milton’s dispatch

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The move became necessary because the township’s former dispatching service pulled out.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Though a formal agreement isn’t likely until Aug. 6, Trumbull County’s 911 center is set to begin Friday dispatching fire and ambulance calls for Milton Township and the village of Craig Beach in Mahoning County.

Mike Dolhancryk, Trumbull 911 director, said he views the tentative agreement for a cross-county relationship to be an indication that the township has faith in the abilities of his dispatching center.

Milton is studying an agreement that calls for the township to pay $400 per month to have fire and ambulance calls (about 360 per year) forwarded to Trumbull 911 for dispatching, Dolhancryk said.

Police calls will remain with the Mahoning County 911 center for dispatching to the Milton Township and Craig Beach police departments, said Clark Jones, director of the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency and director of the county dispatching center in Youngstown.

Jones said he views Milton Township’s agreement with Trumbull to be temporary until the township can find an agency within Mahoning County to take on the fire and ambulance dispatching.

Dolhancryk said the $400 price was reached by charging a certain price per call and then multiplying that by four because 75 percent of the Trumbull County 911 budget is paid by Trumbull taxpayers, with the remaining 25 percent paid by member communities.

Milton, Jackson, Ellsworth and Berlin townships, as well as Craig Beach, in western Mahoning County, were informed that the private company MedCorp would be closing its ambulance and dispatching operations today.

The communities have reached agreement with Lane LifeTrans for the company to provide the emergency medical response to the communities. Various other agreements are being reached for dispatching outside of Milton Township.