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Last updated on Thursday, October 11, 2012
(BEDFORD) - Lawrence County Commissioners David Flinn, Bill Spreen and Chris May Tuesday expressed concern about the future costs of dispatching law enforcement and emergency vehicles within the county.
Valerie Luchauer, the county's emergency director, informed the commissioners she has been keeping track of Bedford's efforts to purchase new computer software for its dispatch system.
Mitchell's 911 calls are expected to be moved to the county dispatch center at the end of the year, and the commissioners are concerned Mitchell, Bedford and the county will all be channeled into one central dispatch center in the future.
Luchauer says the system Bedford is looking at is expensive. She says the city has the money in their budget for the new CAD system but fears the system is just too expensive for the county. She added upgrades could be done to the county's system cheaper.
Sheriff Sam Craig agreed saying the county is happy with its Cisco system, and an upgrade to the city's new system would be cost prohibitive.
In September, the Bedford Board of Works and Public Safety gave Bedford Police Chief Dennis Parsley permission to seek bids on new Spillman computer software system. Parsley told city officials the department's current system is about 13-years-old.
Both Luchauer and Craig say they have been working with Bedford to make the systems compatible, but there are still some hurdles they need to agree on.
Flinn says if the state mandates a centralized system, dispatch will be channeled through the county.
"I don't mean to be abrupt about it and I don't want to control what they do," he said, "but we need to work together. I've got to believe we're going to come to a point where we'll have to do this together."
Luchauer said she will keep the commissioners updated.
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