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Ruling favors ’08 plan for Trumbull Co. 911 calls
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A Tuesday ruling by Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court could have far-reaching implications for the future of Trumbull County police and fire dispatching.
Judge Stuard ruled that a plan enacted by the Trumbull County 911 Planning Committee in 2008 is lawful.
The plan calls for 911 calls to go to one of three primary answering points, with the county 911 center in Howland receiving calls for Girard, Hubbard, Newton Falls, Lordstown and Liberty and relaying the calls to the appropriate agency.
The plan specifies 911 calls meant for the county 911 center will remain with the center; and for Niles and Warren to continue to answer their own 911 calls and serve as backups to the county 911 center.
But one of the parties involved said it’s still unclear whether the decision finally decides whether the dispatching operations in Girard, Hubbard, Newton Falls, Lordstown and Liberty will be eliminated.
“We want to sit down with the attorney and digest the decision and see what our alternatives are,” Niles Police Chief Bruce Simeone said Wednesday. Simeone said one primary question will be whether to appeal Judge Stuard’s decision.
Niles and Warren joined the lawsuit filed by Girard, Hubbard, Newton Falls, Lordstown and Liberty Township that challenged the 911 Planning Committee’s plan.
The cities’ argument was that the method used by the 911 Planning Committee was unlawful because it didn’t consult with a subcommittee called the Technical Advisory Committee before approving a new plan.
Mike Dolhancryk, former county 911 director, advocated 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 once.
Representatives of the smaller dispatching operations, some of which operate with one dispatcher at a time, said having the county center receive 911 calls first produces an unnecessary delay and could jeopardize the safety of police officers.
Simeone, meanwhile, said he’s pleased that Ernie Cook, former chief deputy of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department, was appointed county 911 director at a meeting of the county commissioners Wednesday.
Cook replaces Dolhancryk, who died in July after a lengthy illness.
“We work very well with Chief Cook. ... Ernie’s been here all his life, and he has been on the law-enforcement side, so I think it’s going to work out just fine,” Simeone said.
Cook started out as police officer in Miami Beach, Fla., in the 1970s, then worked as a police officer and chief in Brookfield before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees and working for British Petroleum for 17 years.
He became Vienna police chief in 1993 and chief deputy for Sheriff Tom Altiere in 2000. Cook became interim 911 director when Dolhancryk got sick.
Cook makes $64,979 annually, county personnel records say.