City emergency communications costs $114k more than county services

HIGH SPRINGS – If High Springs shut down their emergency communications center and contracted with the Alachua County Combined Communications Center (CCC) for those services, it would likely save the city over $114,000 annually.

During an earlier presentation of the city’s proposed 2014/2015 budget, which included the costs associated with continuing to maintain emergency communication services locally, Commissioner Scott Jamison asked to see a comparison of what the budget figures would be if the city was to have the county provide those services.

During the July 24 commission meeting, those figures were provided to commissioners and showed a reduction in expenses of $114,715.

The topic of maintaining services locally or contracting with the county to take over emergency communications has come up off and on during the year. The last time it arose, commissioners agreed to postpone further discussion until budget planning for 2014/2015 to allow time for actual costs to be calculated.

According to High Springs City Manager Ed Booth, the cost of eliminating local communications services can be viewed in two categories. Information technology expenses would be reduced by $10,000 and police communications expenses would be reduced by $104,715, for a total reduction in city costs of $114,715.

The cost of having Alachua County take over those services again would be based on the number of calls handled by the CCC multiplied by the percentage of the population. Looking at the previous contract the city had with the county, the city was charged 60 percent per 1,000,000 citizens, based on a population of fewer than 6,000 residents.

The last year the county provided communication service to High Springs, which was 2012, costs were approximately $80,000, said Booth.

Concern has been expressed that if the city eliminated the service locally and engaged the CCC again, the county's costs to the city for those services would escalate when the population increases to 6,000. City Hall estimates a current High Springs population of 5,494 residents. However, it is unknown at this time how or if a population increase would affect costs for future CCC services.

Commissioner Bob Barnas said that all the signs in the city would have to be replaced to accommodate E-911 addressing if the county handled emergency calls for the city. He suggested the cost for all of that be built into whatever figures the county might charge to handle emergency calls for the city.

Actually, that is not the case, said Keith Godwin, Alachua County Director of E-911 Services and a resident of High Springs. “The signs are fine just as they are,” he said. “The county handles calls for the city's fire department and ambulance services without any problem right now. It would be no different for other emergency services,” he said.

Booth commented that he had been asked to provide both sets of budget figures, which he did. He also said he had already budgeted local emergency communications services into next year's budget.

“At this time, that's all I've been asked to do,” he said. “Unless a majority of the commissioners want me to do something else and give me further direction, that's where things stand,” he said.

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