Lincoln County Possible Dispatch Change?

Status
Not open for further replies.

southradio

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2003
Messages
61
Location
Northwest Oregon
From what I've seen reported, Lincoln County Commissioners have held discussions about possibly dissolving LINCOM, the county's dispatch center, and transferring dispatch functions to the City of Salem's Willamette Valley Communications Center. I don't know if this would also involve dispatch operations in Lincoln City and Toledo but it would seem to be an indication that other changes along this line may be in store. Supposedly, the State of Oregon is seriously encouraging consolidation of PSAPs but in this case it would be much more than simply consolidating to a single PSAP within a county by transferring the entire responsibility to a location in another county. Has anyone heard of this or heard whether this may be moving forward beyond the discussion stage?
 

Fielder3

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
214
Location
North Willamette Valley - Oregon
LINCOM and WVCC

Yes.. there are several reasons LINCOM is closing. (WVCC already supports LINCOM, Toledo Dispatch and Lincoln City with CAD and Tech support.) There are a several hurdles to go over before it is a done deal. -Staffing, phone switching, microwave link, etc. Which will be transfered to WVCC if people want to move to the valley. If / When it happens this summer (July 2012), WVCC 911 Salem will dispatch the following agencies ;

LIncoln County SO
Newport PD/FD
Walport PD/FD
Depoe Bay FD
Yahats FD
South Lincoln County EMS
PacWest Ambulance

Yet to be decided... USFS law for Willamette and Siuslaw National Forest, after hrs dispatching for Oregon Dept of Forestry Western Oregon District (Toledo, Dallas, Philomath).

Toledo and LIncoln City Comm Centers will continue to dispatch their own city PD/FD's.

YES, I can be done, and deadline of sometime in July has been posted in the newspapers.

Side note, WVCC (Run by City of Salem) within about a year or so may be looking VERY closely at breaking away from the city and becoming their own consolidated dispatch agency/911 district. If that happens, NORCOM (Woodburn 911) and Santiam Canyon (Stayton 911) may also merge with WVCC.
 

Fielder3

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
214
Location
North Willamette Valley - Oregon
Oregon State 911 Consolidate

Yes, there is a move by legislators, and a draft plan has been created and made public. If they have their way, there would be only (4) Four regional 911 centers statewide. They want 911 funding for that many centers only. They may be other 911 centers, but they will have to find/secure their own funding from other sources.

More logically, and I think they may be going with this idea instead..is having several REGIONAL 911 centers statewide.. something like

Portland
Metro West
Metro East

North Willamette Valley
South Wilamette Valley
Coast (Southern)
NE Area
Central Oregon
Southern
Southeast
 

DickH

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
4,067
... More logically, and I think they may be going with this idea instead..is having several REGIONAL 911 centers statewide.. something like

Portland
Metro West
Metro East ...

On what do you base that wild guess?
 

southradio

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2003
Messages
61
Location
Northwest Oregon
Wow! Just considering the political implications of making so many consolidations... In addition to those you mentioned in Marion County, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out with the PSAPs in Lake Oswego, Newberg, Junction City, Seaside and so many others. Thanks for sharing all of that information with us.
 

dkf435

Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2006
Messages
729
Location
Sweet Home/Foster OR
I am not even going to think what it would be like if we have a major storm or earthquake wipe out all the fiber and microwave going to the coast.

David Kb7uns
 

joescanner

Just another radio geek.
Joined
Feb 14, 2002
Messages
739
Location
Gresham, OR
Speaking for the Portland area, I suspect that Regional Radio will play into this directly. There is already planning afoot (with representatives of all four (or more?) of the regional radio systems) to create a wide area public safety radio network in the Portland area.

The last time I heard, (the plans for the new radio system) included Columbia, Clark, Skamania, Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Hood River and Yamhill counties, and could include Marion county as well.

Could you imagine a "powerhouse" PSAP that encompassed that area?

For WCCCA and CCOM being as small as they are... it seems only logical to combine them (they are already sharing radio back-haul and CAD systems).
 

DickH

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
4,067
... The last time I heard, (the plans for the new radio system) included Columbia, Clark, Skamania, Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Hood River and Yamhill counties, and could include Marion county as well.

Could you imagine a "powerhouse" PSAP that encompassed that area? ...

Yes. It would be named "Pandemonium". :)
 

icom1020

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
1,039
It's more likely that Hood, Skamania and Wasco and possibly Klickitat would join forces before they merge west. I remember Sherman Co being dispatched on the Klickitat Co. freq back in the 80's and 90's as "S" units. But mergers in some form are more likely than not.
 

PaulNDaOC

Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
598
Speaking from a work experience perspective I can't overstate the importance of geographic knowledge when you have a panicked citizen on 911 or a fott chase going down.

What OSP is not a good example of what to expect at a regional PSAP. The Dispatcher on Portland North or East Net probably has more units on most any evening than the OSP Salem center.

The type of workload between OSP and a PSAP is like comparing apples to oranges.

And I haven't even mentioned local control. Having a statewide center is laughable. I can understand a county like Clatsop, or Lincoln, don't need multiple centers, but mega-centers would be a bad choice.

I don't have any idea what the rural counties think about regional or statewide centers, but I can tell you the urban areas will fight it all the way.

Just my two cents here- The state should just continue collecting the 911 tax and forwarding it to the local agencies and let them decide what's best for their needs.
 

mikepdx

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
854
Location
Corbett, OR USA
The last time I heard, (the plans for the new radio system) included Columbia, Clark, Skamania, Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Hood River and Yamhill counties, and could include Marion county as well.

Could you imagine a "powerhouse" PSAP that encompassed that area?

It would make one hella single target for the serious crazies...
 

Fielder3

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
214
Location
North Willamette Valley - Oregon
OC Paul.. I agree that merging a single agency like OSP into a couple of area Command Dispatch Centers can and does work for them. But that is a single agency, not 20-40 different agencies under one roof. (There are a few large 911 centers in the state that already dispatch that many agencies.) I'm interested to see what comes out next from OEM/Oregon MIlitary Dept.

Yes, I do work on this field, and hear rumors from people who run 911 centers and work for the state. Over the next 5 years there will be some interesting changes. And of course there is a up front $$ associated with it. But then, there is already 40+ 911 centers statewide, numerous non-interoperable radio systems, CAD, and phones systems. PSAP merging will cost $$ up front, but the long run will save a lot of money.

A hot topic right now is how 911 tax funds are distributed to each 911 PSAP. Each County Sheriff Dept gets the money from the state and distributes it to individual 911 centers. For some smaller centers, that could be upwards of 20-30% of the budget. Some get more than others, and it has nothing to do with how big the 911 center/PSAP is.
 

OregonScanner

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
745
-Staffing, phone switching, microwave link, etc. Which will be transfered to WVCC if people want to move to the valley.

Do you mean that WVCC will hire Lincom's dispatchers / calltakers?
 

Gezelle007

Lurker in the Deep
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Oct 18, 2009
Messages
1,070
Location
Oregon
Do you mean that WVCC will hire Lincom's dispatchers / calltakers?

If they did, that would be a helluva commute...

Maybe they should just take command of it, and just call it the west dispatch center or something... consolidating like that would take forever, expansion of the Salem center... radio links...
 

oregontreehugger

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 5, 2004
Messages
1,258
Location
PNW
I can see some areas having to be dragged kicking and screaming into a big consolidated center. On the other hand, I can see other areas being first in line for the change. I think it depends a lot on local politics and funding (like anything).

A big player right now has got to be the loss of the century-old rural counties' timber payments. With a lot of counties facing near bankruptcy, communications centers are probably almost last in line for any sort of budget allowances or updates. From a financial standpoint, it's probably far easier just to have another center take over their dispatch functions for them at a fraction of the cost, and funnel over some user fees. From a technical perspective that is probably a complete nightmare.

And as mentioned, what in the heck happens when your connection goes down? Or when a dispatcher in Salem is handling something in Astoria?

I just can't envision only four 9-1-1 centers in the whole state. Did they pull a number out of the air and go with that?
 

Fielder3

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
214
Location
North Willamette Valley - Oregon
I was being a little facetious with four, but maybe that's how drastic it could be over next 10 years. (Central Oregon counties taking about consolidating 5 centers, and whats happening in the Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon. -Radio system interop. between multiple counties.)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top