Scott County Commission seeking 911 contracts

BENTON, Mo. -- Scott County commissioners are moving forward with their plan to make the county a regional 911 center.

At Thursday's meeting, county developer Joel Evans presented the commission with a draft of a letter he plans to send to other counties and municipalities to gauge interest about contracting services.

"This is very preliminary," said Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger. "This is just the way we get started."

Around the state, counties and municipalities are for the most part operating in the red when it comes to 911 systems. Commissioner Ron McCormick, who also serves as a liaison with the county's 911 system, said that's due to "a lack of land lines and more people going to cell phones."

Missouri is one of a few states with no cell phone tax for 911. For the past few years, municipalities have asked for such a tax, but McCormick said the state legislature is "very much against doing that."

Instead, members of legislature have suggested counties and municipalities combine services, like what Scott County is proposing. "As far as I know, nobody has done it yet," McCormick said.

Burger estimated that in three to five years, other entities will hit the same crunch Scott County has, with less funds and more expenses. "What we're doing now will take place in every small area across the state," he said. "We owe it to the voters and we owe it to the county to make it solid."

Some entities they have spoken to have no desire to contract services, but others are quite interested. For instance, McCormick said he discussed the plan with Pemiscot County commissioners at a Missouri Association of Counties conferences last week.

"Pretty much all three of them said 'Where do we sign up?'" McCormick said. He noted a big misconception residents may have is that it will take longer to dispatch fire or police if the call is going to another county.

"But it doesn't matter if you're 100 miles away from that call center, you still get the same service you would get if you are five miles away," he said. Contracted services would only pertain to the call center.

McCormick and Burger also noted that Scott County has state-of-the-art 911 equipment and excellent employees. There is also excess capacity.

"Some of these counties would benefit a whole lot if we pool our services together," McCormick said.

If enough municipalities join together, McCormick said, "hopefully we can operate in the black, be self-sustaining and actually have an excess amount of money."

That would allow for further upgrades, which are usually needed about once a decade.