By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Edito
Washington’s City Council voted 3-2 to proceed with plans to merge the city’s E-911 system with Beaufort County’s E-911 system as soon as the county system is ready to absorb the city’s system.
That decision came during the council’s meeting Monday night. Voting for the measure were Mayor Pro Tempore Bobby Roberson and council members Doug Mercer and Gil Davis. Voting against the measure were council members William Pitt and Edward Moultrie.
Once the two systems are merged, the county would answer all E-911 calls currently being answered by the city, but the city would continue to dispatch police, fire and EMS personnel to E-911 calls made from areas inside the city and outside the city served by those personnel.
Mick Reed, chief of the Washington Police Department, said the merger would result in the dispatching of those personnel being delayed because the county would have to give those E-911 calls to the city’s telecommunicators to dispatch. The city’s existing E-911 system allows the city’s telecommunicators to answer E-911 calls and dispatch emergency personnel without delay, Reed told the council. Reed said he prefers that arrangement.
Pitt, a telecommunicator with Beaufort County, said the city and county should maintain separate E-911 systems. Pitt said it would be disheartening for an E-911 caller to have his or her call answered by the county, then have that call transferred — and possibly lost during the transfer process — to the city’s telecommunicators for the dispatching of emergency personnel and/or equipment.
Robbie Rose, promoted to chief of the city’s Fire-Rescue-EMS Department on Monday, expressed his concerns about merging the two systems.
“When we’re thrown in there with the county, we’re thrown in with 13 or 14 other fire departments,” Rose said about the county answering all E-911 calls in the county.
Councilman Doug Mercer made the motion to merge the two systems, saying it’s time the city moved forward with the move that’s been several years in coming. The issue surfaced in 2003.
Mercer has long been a supporter of merging the two systems, with the county taking over the responsibility of handling 911 calls. He believes doing so would save taxpayers’ money by avoiding duplication of services. Last month, Mercer said that a “manipulation” of budget information was used by some people to make a case against merging the two systems because it would cost the city money to do so.
Mercer said that’s not the case.
The councilman was pleased with the vote to move ahead with the merger.
“We’ve been working at it for so long, I can’t believe it’s done,” Mercer said in a brief interview Tuesday.
Mercer said the merger of the two E-911 systems is something the city and county need to do to reduce the duplication of services they provide to taxpayers.
“There’s no reason to have two 911 systems a block apart,” Mercer said.
Mercer said the city and county should look at combining other duplicated services so they can provide those services in the most cost-effective ways possible, thereby saving taxpayers’ money.
The county has offered to take over the city’s E-911 duties at a cost of about $165,000 during the first fiscal year of a merger, with the city providing $52,000 for a new E-911 console and $40,000 for costs related to hiring a new employee to handle the increased E-911 traffic handled by the county. The county also would receive $73,000 in outside revenue the city currently receives each year to help pay for its E-911 system.
It was unclear Monday night if the merger could take place July 1, the beginning of a new fiscal year for the city and county, or when the merger could occur.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.