By October 2009, all 911 emergency calls phoned inside Union County will be answered in Union County. A Union County Central Dispatch, also to be known as the Morganfield Public Safety E-911 Center, will be housed in the Morganfield police dispatch offices.
The Union County Fiscal Court and County Emergency Management have been working in partnership with the cities of Morganfield and Sturgis and the Ambulance Service to make the central dispatch a reality.
The Union County Fiscal Court accepted a $450,000 grant into their budget on Tuesday, June 23, to make the necessary equipment and housing purchases for the new dispatch center. This grant is in addition to an earlier grant, which purchased a VIPER recall system for the Kentucky State Police Post in Henderson.
With the VIPER system, any calls made to Union County’s dispatch will recall to the KSP Post in Henderson if not answered. This will serve as a welcome backup should emergency situations like the ice storm in February occur. The Sheriff’s Office will continue to be dispatched through the KSP Post.
Each emergency entity will come on board one by one, starting with the Ambulance Service, to give Morganfield’s dispatchers a chance to adjust to the extra calls. The Ambulance Service will bring a large increase in calls to the department, with an estimated 13,000 calls a year. Sturgis Police and Fire Departments will be dispatched through Morganfield sometime thereafter, with all calls projected to be routed through the central dispatch by October.
The court says this combination of services will decrease the county’s ambulance service cost by nearly $19,000 in salaries. The central dispatch will also allow the county to access wireless 911 fees never before utilized, because the county did not have a certified dispatch.
In other matters:
* The Union County Fiscal Court has set a public hearing date prior to the court meeting on July 14 to discuss the recently adopted Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) for the City of Morganfield. This grant is calculated based on population of the county and is stimulus-based. The county and city have agreed to spend the $12,040 grant on new police radios.
* Debris removal in Union County ended on June 6. The State Department of Highways along with county monitors collected over 86,000 cubic yards bors Webster and Henderson counties collected roughly 748,000 and 2.2 million cubic yards, respectively.
* The Tire Amnesty Program has ended. The Governor’s pilot program was originally scheduled to last through the middle of 2010. Pauline Allen, solid waste coordinator, stated in February that money had run out for the continuation of the program and the program would end on June 30, 2009.
* The court accepted $75,000 on behalf of the Griggs-Alvey American Legion Post for elevator construction. The court is the pass-thru for coal severance money which was a line item out of the state budget.
* Work is underway on the sewer line between River View Coal and Uniontown. The project’s estimated completion date is August 2009.
* Dennis O’Nan has been nominated and approved to serve on the Tax Appeals Board for the court.
