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Scott County Leaders Consider Consolidated 911 Call Center

http://scottcountymo.com/

  Leaders in Scott County are considering a consolidation of the county’s three 911 emergency call centers. The cities of Sikeston and Scott City each operate their own call center, and Scott County operates another in Benton.

Missouri’s 911 call centers are funded through a surcharge on landline telephones. As more customers snip the cord of their landline service, the revenue stream has dried up. Missouri does not have a tariff on wireless communication technology such as cell phones or Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

Scott County presiding commissioner Jamie Burger said there have been two meetings between himself and other local leaders such as Sikeston police chief Drew Juden and Scott City administrator Ron Eskew.

“We’re in a bad state of affairs the way it’s heading,” Burger said. “If we don’t do something in agreement and consolidate, we’re all heading for trouble.”

It’s still undecided where the consolidated call center would be located if it’s approved, and Burger and others are still gathering cost estimates from Motorola for equipment.

Burger said combined efforts would make the centers more manageable.

“It would be more efficient to have one center for 40,000 people than to have three. There’s too many dollars being spent in redundancy,” he said.

Sikeston police chief Drew Juden said consolidation conversations have been off-and-on with neighboring counties for the last 15 years. He said consolidation would not hurt the quality of service.

“Our goal is to keep the service the same or improve it to some degree,” Juden said.

The Scott County board of commissioners and the city councils in Scott City and Sikeston would have to approve any consolidation.

Rep. Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) filed legislation in the Missouri House to add up to a $1.50 monthly surcharge to wireless device plans and a three percent prepaid wireless emergency telephone service charge to fund 911 service. The bill requires voter approval from residents at the local city or county level to apply the fee.

“We are the only state left that does not have a tariff or a tax that supports 911 on wireless devices,” Juden said.

Regardless of what happens in Jefferson City, Burger believes something must be done to now to ensure 911 services continue to operate in Scott County.

“I think no matter what happens with the state legislature, and believe me something needs to, we’re still heading in this direction just being in survival mode,” Burger said. “We can’t keep operating the way we have.”