Hubbard considers 911 regionalization

June 19, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By DANNY RESTIVO

HUBBARD

Hubbard may become the latest city in the Valley to regionalize its 911 dispatching services.

During Monday’s city council meeting, officials discussed the possibility of disbanding the local 911 dispatching center in favor of the Trumbull County 911 dispatch center located in Howland Township.

“It’s not an issue of the service we were provided,” said Hubbard city council member and safety committee chairman Tim O’Hara.

In 2011, Hubbard spent more than $300,000 on salaries, benefits and equipment maintenance for its four full-time and two part-time employees. By moving the dispatching to the county center, the city can save up to $1 million over a five-year period, said O’Hara.

He said advances in technology, as well as the cost of maintaining a 911 call center, make fiscal sense for a city concerned with a future budget.

“In a matter of time — it could be a year, it could be two years — we’re going to lose our dispatchers,” he said.

By acting quickly to regionalize dispatch services, some current Hubbard dispatchers will be able to keep jobs with the Trumbull County 911 center, said O’Hara. He believes if the council doesn’t act soon enough, another city in Trumbull County trying to consolidate will take those available county positions.

“Within two or three years, these jobs will be nonexistent,” said O’Hara. “Everyone is going to be in Howland.”

Wendy Lavelle, who has worked for more than 16 years as a Hubbard dispatcher, believes city officials don’t understand what type of impact local dispatchers have on the community.

“We know our citizens and we know our town,” said Lavelle. “I would like for them to come down and see the difference in service that you get locally.”

Lavelle also questions how many of her fellow dispatchers will be able to keep their jobs if the center does move to Trumbull County. She points to Liberty Township’s decision to move emergency services to Howland.

“From what I’m hearing from the Liberty people, only one chose to go to the 911 center out of the four of them,” she said.

Liberty transferred its 911 services to Trumbull County after a unanimous vote by its township trustees in April.