Seven Mile Beach Boroughs to Pilot Consolidated Emergency Dispatching

CREST HAVEN – Seven Mile Beach boroughs, Avalon and Stone Harbor, have agreed to take the first steps to save $1 million, and begin consolidated dispatching of emergency services, possibly as early as January 2014. Mayors, fire and police department representatives from both municipalities attended the Nov. 12 freeholder caucus meeting to unveil the plan.
“This is a real opportunity for not only Avalon and Stone Harbor, but also for Cape May County to be part of this centralized communications system,” said Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton. He joked that, 25 years ago, he had a $500,000 grant to seek such services, “But they were ready to run me out of town. Cape May wanted me run out of town,” said Thornton of that earlier time. “This is a great pilot program. I commend Avalon and Stone Harbor.”
Long considered and commonly referred to as “central dispatch,” the concept has been studied and restudied. Praised by some, scorned by others, the concept will take a step forward to save tax dollars for Avalon and Stone Harbor taxpayers by consolidating the purchase and use of costly technology and dispatching personnel. At present a county-funded study with the firm Intertech is eight months old, its results yet to be revealed.
Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi “put on” his county emergency management coordinator hat to detail the proposal for freeholders. “It started eight months ago when the borough councils talked of problems they were having in dispatch areas,” he said.
Of the county contract with Intertech, Pagliughi said it was modified in April, and continued through the summer, when emergency calls increase on barrier islands as much as 500 percent. That study, he noted, “will be quite extensive, and will address all problems and road blocks that have been put up over 12 years.”
He cited another 2008 county-funded study that “came up with a lot of negatives.”
After talking with police, fire and rescue personnel, Pagliughi said “What we came up with, the fire service feels that a lot of dispatch is geared to police and not to fire communications.”That is why, Pagliughi said, the county fire chiefs association voted in the last 10 years for countywide dispatch.
Dispatching personnel, and their collective bargaining agreements, were taken into consideration, said Michael Donohue, Stone Harbor solicitor, who addressed the labor aspect of the consolidated dispatch plan.
Pagliughi said barrier islands, faced with the influx of calls during summer hired additional dispatchers, perhaps two or three, then reverted to one in winter months.
As proposed the county Office of Emergency Management will dispatch fire and emergency medical service calls for Avalon and Stone Harbor. Avalon will dispatch police calls island wide.
Donohue, whose late father William was a Stone Harbor police chief, said the idea had been discussed for many years. He noted both municipalities are at “the point where everybody is ready to do this.”
A shared service agreement between the county and Avalon for 9-1-1 calls will have Avalon answer the call first, learn the nature of the emergency, and instantly relay to the county should the call be for fire or rescue. Donohue said, based on part of the ongoing study Avalon proposes to pay the county $12,000 annually. That would be at $10 per call for island wide calls of about 1,200 per year.
Such a small number of calls would not overburden the county OEM dispatchers.
“The county dispatch center would not be dealing with more than 10 calls a day at the height of the day (in season),” said Donohue.
That would not be a “huge burden” since the county OEM office has “unused capacity in manpower and technology,” he added.
“If this all happened the boroughs of Avalon and Stone Harbor would realize over $1 million savings with an agreement in place. That is a substantial savings for those towns,” Donohue added. He said the proposed contracts for shared services have been presented to the municipalities and to County Counsel Barbara Bakley-Marino.
Donohue said negotiations had been undertaken with dispatchers to form a pool so that, in the event of a storm, such as Hurricane Sandy, when their home stations may be unusable, they would report to the county OEM office to aid dispatchers there.
An agreement to consolidate emergency calls would be in line with other shared service agreements on Seven Mile Beach, Donohue said. They already shared public works manpower, municipal court staffs, have long-standing mutual aid agreements between fire departments and shared water connections.
“As you know, the boroughs have interlocals with the county. These are municipalities with 25 percent of the ratable base in the county. There are a lot of assets to be protected by police and fire on that one barrier island,” Donohue said.
“This is a big first step for all of us,” said Thornton. “The future is in centralized dispatch. I spoke to people in Gloucester County. They are reasonably happy with what happened there. This is the right way to do it, on a small scale first to get the bugs out early.”
“A fact we hear every day is the governor talking about property tax relief,” said Pagliughi. The noted the only entities that control those taxes are county, schools, municipalities, libraries and fire districts. “To save $1 million over three years (term of the contract) is substantial.”
“When I heard the million dollar number I was startled,” said Thornton. “I never imagined it would be that much.”
Asked by Freeholder Will Morey if the savings would take place due to elimination of shift duplication, Pagliughi said yes. Also, when technology, which is constantly being upgraded to stay current, such upgrades can cost over $1 million. He also cited being able to utilize the county’s 700-megahertz radio system and utilize the county’s microwave system.
That radio system would offer “inter-operability” to all departments, whereas at present every department operates on their own radio frequency. At present the county Sheriff’s Department and County Prosecutor’s Office use the microwave system for communications, Pagliughi said.