The Cole County Commission met today to discuss the possibility of creating a new 911 dispatch center. Marc Ellinger, the Presiding Commissioner for the Cole County Commission, said Cole County currently operates out of the Jefferson City Police Department 911 center.
“We are looking at all the options. We need to get a lot of information. Right now it seems like it’s potentially, fiscally a possibility to stand a separate 911 center but we need to get all of the information before making a decision. And that’s the process we’re embarking on now,” Ellinger said.
The Jefferson City Police Department is looking to upgrade their 911 center, according to Kris Scheperle, the Western District Commissioner. Scheperle said this means the Cole County Commission would have to pay 25 percent of the upgrades because of the contract. Cole County has budgeted about $370 thousand for Jefferson City next year, according to Scheperle.
The commissioners met today to see if a new center is financially possible, according to Ellinger. The contract with Jefferson City renews October 15th so the decision whether to create a new 911 dispatch center needs to be made before then.
“No decisions were made today. We’re just trying to gather information on the feasibility of doing our own dispatch for law enforcement,” said Scheperle.
The 911 center will be further discussed at the meeting on Tuesday, September 23rd.
