Boulder County Dispatchers may be facing layoffs
Dispatch may be facing layoffs
Fire department pullout upsets county’s plans
By Brad Turner
The Daily Times-Call
BOULDER — County safety officials said they may be forced to lay off dispatchers after Boulder Fire Chief Larry Donner announced plans this week for the city to pull out of the county’s unfinished $7.7 million communications center. Smaller cities around the county, most of which support police dispatch costs but not fire communications, may be asked to help offset the lost revenue from Boulder Fire’s pullout. That department would have contributed about 9 percent of the facility’s $2.5 million annual operating costs, Sheriff Joe Pelle said.
If the towns and cities refuse or cannot afford to chip in more money, layoffs or spending cuts will be necessary, he said.
“We’re trying to find a solution that doesn’t affect public safety,” Pelle said Thursday after huddling with county commissioners to discuss the problem.
Pelle’s office manages dispatch calls for the county’s police and fire departments and fire districts, with a few exceptions.
Longmont runs its own emergency dispatch center. And Boulder police handles their own communications, though they currently share a dispatch facility with the county.
Boulder Fire initially planned to participate in the new dispatch facility, which is set for completion in late 2007. The 22,500-square-foot building is being built east of the Boulder County Jail off Airport Road in Boulder.
But the department backed off after calculating that for the same annual fee — about $225,000 — it could afford more dispatchers by staying at the city’s current dispatch center on 33rd Street in Boulder, Donner said.
Heavy traffic on the primary dispatch channel for county fire calls has frustrated Boulder firefighters in recent years and played a role in the decision, Donner said.
“The call load was increasing, but the number of dispatchers wasn’t,” he said. “It gets to be an issue of firefighter safety. There are days when firefighters showing up on scene can’t get through to dispatch.”
County dispatchers handled 10,209 calls for Boulder Fire in 2005. In the same year, the other cities in the county generated 4,128 calls altogether, while rural fire districts generated 10,793, according to county documents.
The pullout could be a blessing in disguise if officials can find funds to replace Boulder Fire’s funding contribution, Pelle said.
The shift should give the county’s fire frequency some badly needed breathing room, he said.
“For a while, we’ve had sort of an overworked system on the fire side,” Pelle said. “In the long run, if I don’t suffer personnel and operating costs, it’s a better deal for us.”
But finding a way to maintain the current number of county dispatchers may be tricky.
Boulder County government kicks in about $1.1 million for county dispatch operations annually, with fire and police departments from local cities shelling out the remaining $1.4 million, Pelle said.
To offset the money lost by Boulder Fire’s withdrawal, commissioners may ask cities around the county that now support police dispatch services to also support the fire dispatch budget, based on the number of fire calls generated by each town.
Louisville, which saw 1,437 fire calls in 2005, would pay about $38,000 annually under a scenario formulated Thursday by Pelle. Smaller towns such as Lyons, which had just 151 fire calls last year, would be asked to pay about $4,000.
Because of an agreement between the county government and nearly two dozen local fire districts, few of those districts pay more than a nominal dispatch fee.
The fire districts agreed in the mid-1970s to help battle blazes on county open space in exchange for fire dispatch services, Pelle said.
The deal between fire districts and open space officials doesn’t exist for municipal fire departments, so Boulder Fire pays about $225,000 in dispatch fees to the county, while the Lafayette Fire Department pays about $48,000.
At Thursday’s meeting, Lafayette Fire Chief Gerry Morrell urged Pelle and the commissioners to reform the system while finding new funds for the dispatch center.
“We really need to come up with a solution that’s going to be fair and equitable,” he said.
Donner acknowledged the unusual deal between the county and numerous fire districts was a factor in Boulder Fire’s decision to withdraw.
“The county sources didn’t match the money coming in from the city,” he said. “If the contributions were equal on both sides, there would be adequate dispatching for the county.”
County commissioners fired off a notice about the $225,000 shortfall to cities around the county Friday, saying they hope to schedule a meeting with municipal councils and boards in the coming weeks.
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