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Liberty officials OK 911-center pact
Liberty
The Liberty Township trustees voted to terminate the township’s 911 dispatch center and enter a three-year contract with the Trumbull County 911 Center.
Township officials said Monday after the unanimous vote that the move will save taxpayers more than $200,000 a year and not compromise safety.
Service will switch as soon as dispatching equipment in Liberty can be transferred to the county, said Stan Nudell, chairman of the trustees.
Beginning in 2013, the township will pay $84,735 a year for 911-dispatching service as opposed to more than $300,000 a year to keep the local 911 center operating.
The county also will hire all four full-time Liberty dispatchers.
Through the consolidation, Liberty will enjoy the county’s 911 upgrades, which include a system that can find a caller’s exact location even if it’s a call from a cellphone.
“It’s really a great system,” said Trustee Jason Rubin. “We spent a lot of time making sure it is safe. I really think it’s a good decision.”
Trustee Jodi Stoyak agreed.
The board also approved placing a five-year, 0.45-mill 911-dispatching levy on the November ballot to replace the current 1.25-mill levy that funds the local 911 center.
Nudell said trustees would vote on terminating the 1.25-mill levy, which brings in about $280,000 a year, at a later meeting.
If passed by Liberty voters, the 0.45-mill levy would generate $96,000 annually and cost the owner of a house worth $100,000 about $15 a year.
“If the 0.45 levy doesn’t pass we’ll still be at the county,” Nudell said. “We’ll have to find another way to pay for it.”
The county’s 911 administrator, Ernie Cook, announced at the meeting that the county would pay $28,000 for parts of the 911 equipment at Liberty’s dispatch center, about half of what Liberty paid in 2008.
Nudell said the $28,000 will go toward paying the county for 911 services this year.
Since voters passed the 1.25-mill levy in 2008, the township’s general fund has had to continually subsidize the local dispatching because dispatching costs had outpaced the funding the levy brought into the township.