Winnebago County and nine municipalities are nearing an intergovernmental agreement for the operation of a consolidated regional 911 center.
It's been eight weeks since Pennsylvania-based consultants, Mission Critical Partners, presented its final report to the Winnebago County Emergency Telephone System Board outlining what it determined to be the most efficient and economic means to deliver 911 services throughout Winnebago County.
Since that time, mostly law enforcement and some fire officials from South Beloit, Rockton, Roscoe, Durand, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Pecatonica, Winnebago, Cherry Valley and Winnebago County have been meeting weekly at the Machesney Park Village Hall to implement the plan produced by the study.
Several communities, with the exception of Loves Park and Machesney Park, have never paid for dispatching services, said Machesney Park Village Administrator Tim Savage.
"Once the study was completed and received, we've acted in lightning speed to cover some monumental and heavy issues as far as who participates and what the fees will be," Savage said.
The Mission Critical study did not specify a specific funding model, but proposed several different models — splitting costs based on population, number of officers, call volume, or a combination thereof.
The county's budget to operate the 911 center is about $1.8 million, county Administrator Carla Paschal said.
The county will pay 40 percent of the operation costs. As for the remaining $1.08 million, the communities represented at Tuesday's meeting left in agreement to pay an uspecified base fee plus an additional fee determined by their call volume.
Exactly how much each municipality will pay has yet to be determined, but Pascal said the county stands to pick up about $600,000 a year in revenue from the proposed agreement.
Consolidation of the city's and county's 911 centers has been a topic of discussion almost ever since the city and county split in 2006 in response to a state mandate requiring a fully operational backup to be available in case of emergency. Technology advances and improved communication transmission lines has made it possible to route 911 calls to different dispatch centers in northern Illinois.
Given the financial straits of Rockford and Winnebago County, efforts to consolidate 911 services were renewed. In fact, it was this time last year when communities throughout the county experienced sticker shock, if not anger, when told how much they would have to pay to continue to receive dispatching services from Winnebago County.
The Mission Critical study also recommended establishing one dispatch center to serve all agencies outside of Rockford. That center will be located in the existing North Main Street 911 facility and its operations would be governed by a board of stakeholders or representatives of all public safety agencies served by the consolidated dispatch center. Meanwhile, Rockford's 911 center will continue to dispatch for the city's fire and police departments until it is feasible to consolidate.
Each community will have a seat on the governing 14-member board. Winnebago County will be represented by three members, Loves Park and Machesney Park will each be represented by two members, and the remaining seven communities will each have one member on the board. In the event of a tie, the sheriff, who will function as the executive director of the board, will cast the deciding vote.
The board will oversee matters such as the budget, bylaws and whether to add a new voting member.
An operations sub committee will be made up of representatives of each police department and, in the future, fire departments and fire protection districts.
Savage and Pascal anticipate an intergovernmental agreement being drafted by the end of the year or early January. They are hopeful participating municipalities will sign off on the agreement by early spring.
©2018 Rockford Register Star, Ill. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
