County hears budget requests

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July 6, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Calls to the 911 dispatch center average one almost every 10 minutes.
And while that may sound a little slow, played out over 24 hours a day and every day of the year, the total comes to 55,000.
“That’s what we received last year,” Angie Murphy, dispatch center director, told Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning.
The call total — she figures half or more are for true emergencies — wasn’t the point of her appearance, but the magnitude of the number captivated commissioners.
Murphy was before commissioners to request a 20 percent increase in the department’s budget for 2012, up $126,000 over this year’s $490,000.
The increase seemed pretty hefty. Murphy reasoned health insurance will cost an additional $50,000 and another $6,000 was expected for Kansas Public Employees Retirement System dues in 2012.
To stay on the cutting edge of technology will cost more.
She also wants to give raises to her employees, totaling $46,000 for the year, including benefits.
“Dispatchers should be paid the same as other emergency responders, which they aren’t,” she said, noting they were an integral part of the equation when critical situations unfolded.
Commissioners pressed her on the calls, and asked for a breakdown to give them a better feel for the dispatchers’ roles in dealing with the multitude of events that arise over a 12-month period.
Later, Murphy told the Register that 4,868 of the calls came specifically to the 911 number. That leaves about 50,000 incoming calls, with maybe half of those an emergency of some description for the person making the call, she said.
“If you come home and find your house has been broken into, you may call our business line, or Iola or Humboldt police departments or the sheriff’s department, rather than 911,” Murphy suggested.
Calls to either police department of the sheriff after-hours roll over to the dispatch center. Also, in after-hours the dispatch center receives calls about utility problems, nuisance animals and such things.
“We also had 13,266 outgoing calls last year,” she said, some return calls that couldn’t be answered immediately, for more information or to have a more secure conversation with an officer than is afforded by radio.
When not taking or making calls, dispatchers have other duties to perform — checking reports, tracking weather and entering information in data bases.
“I’m not asking for more employees, at least not now,” Murphy said, noting dispatchers were capable of dealing with tasks at hand. But the day may come when an expansion of the dispatch corps will be needed, she said. Ten are employed at the center today, with one position open and expected to be filled soon.
Murphy was eager to point out to commissioners that a recent visit to the center by the Kansas Highway Patrol produced a glowing report. She said all security networks and measures were found to be well within standards for compliance.

BILL KING, director of Public Works, proposed an operating budget for next year of $1.997 million, $35,000 more than this year.
He shifted numbers within his spending plan to cope with health insurance and other fixed costs increases, King said, but there was nothing he could do about higher costs for fuel and oil used in chip-sealing and repairs of the county’s more than 100 miles of hard-surfaced roads.
“Every time I get in a tanker of (road) oil, it’s $20,000,” he said.
King also pointed out that for three years running his department had not received $300,000 it previously had each year from state funding.
Appraiser Sandra Drake asked that her budget be increased $31,000, to $337,000. Of the increase, $26,000 is for higher health insurance costs.
Register of Deeds Cara Barkdoll said a $9,000 increase in health insurance cost prompted her to request 2012 operating funds totaling $104,971. Her budget this year was $96,000.

JUNE TERRILL, among those who frequent the county-owned Moran Senior/Community Center, asked help in dealing with troublesome doors.
She said difficulty in using the doors was an ongoing concern for the seniors and that a couple of previous attempts to remedy problems hadn’t worked.
Commissioners promised to get the doors to work properly, even if it meant replacing them.

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