Contributed by: CBrining
Posted: Friday, March 4, 2016 5:36 am
MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST
Staff Writer The Press of Atlantic City
After a year of design work and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, Atlantic County's centralized dispatch plan is effectively dead.
To pay about $351,000 to Stockton University in Galloway Township for its share of design of a building that would have housed both the county dispatch center and Stockton's police force.
But no further work will be done. "We are paying a final bill," said County Administrator Jerry DelRosso. "That's the end of that."
DelRosso said only six of 23 municipalities returned surveys with updated information on how much the towns are currently spending on emergency dispatch services. So the county did not have information needed to proceed.
Freeholder Ernest Coursey said that was a clear message most are not interested in pursuing the idea.
The building, with an estimated price tag of about.......Continue Reading
$31 million, including all the technology required, would have been built on land provided by the school. Stockton also would have contributed $4.8 million.
"All people want to do is complain about taxes being too high, but they all want their own police, fire chief and superintendent of schools."
DENNIS LEVINSON
Atlantic County Executive
In a recent meeting of its own, the Stockton board of trustees voted to spend about $1 million to upgrade its existing police building, sending another signal that the shared building was a lost cause.
"It lifts a burden," said Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello, who was opposed to proceeding with central dispatch. His town's costs would have gone from the $69,000 it pays Gloucester County to handle its emergency calls to $138,000 under Atlantic County estimates.
County Executive Dennis Levinson blamed New Jersey's overreliance on home rule and reluctance to consolidate.
"All people want to do is complain about taxes being too high, but they all want their own police, fire chief and superintendent of schools," he said.
Hammonton Mayor Steve DiDonato said he thought a central system would be better staffed and better able to update expensive equipment regularly. His town's costs would have increased from an estimated $250,000 to $292,000, but he felt it was worth it.
"I thought it would be a positive thing to have it. Unfortunately, it didn't work out," he said. But he predicted the idea "will come back around."
Several municipalities passed resolutions in opposition to the centralized communications center, including Hamilton Township, Corbin City, Ventnor and Atlantic City.
Fewer passed resolutions in support, including Egg Harbor City, Galloway and Northfield.
At a meeting of municipal and county officials and first responders last December, attended by about 150 people, many mayors and police chiefs said the county's cost estimates were based on old numbers that couldn't be trusted.
So county officials said they would send out a new survey, but it was largely ignored.
Chiarello said it just wasn't the right time to proceed with an expensive building and the possibility of taking jobs away from existing dispatchers, or hiring them at a lower salary than they earn now. The starting salary under the county system would have been $28,000.
"I understand the county executive is saying we've been asking for this. I'm here 25 years. The first meeting I ever went to 25 years ago we were talking about county dispatch. But times have changed," Chiarello said.
Freeholder Director Frank Formica said the county has been talking about countywide dispatch with the municipalities for 34 years.
"We moved forward because (a majority) were interested. Then they invested in their own equipment and their needs changed," Formica said. "It has to come to an end right here."
DelRosso said the county intended to bond $1.5 million for its share of all design work on the building but never issued the bonds.
Stockton and the county entered into a memorandum of agreement on the design and construction of a consolidated communications center and university police department facility July 29, 2014. It called for the county to pay 79 percent of the costs.
"The towns now don't want it, but as soon as their equipment is antiquated, they will want central dispatch because they don't want to buy new equipment," said Levinson. "If the towns want central dispatch, they will get it. If they don't, they won't. It's as simple as that. We are receptive; we have the plans ready. Any time the towns want to say, 'OK, it's a go.'"
The county had estimated about half the towns would pay more and half less under a central system, but that, overall, the towns would save about $800,000. The costs would have been removed from local budgets and added to the county budget.
Firefighters in particular had stressed the improved safety that would come with a central system, which would give them specialized communicators that could call for backup quickly and efficiently.
Contact: 609-272-7219 MPost@pressofac.com Twitter @MichelleBPost
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