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Grant County Commissioners discussed a recent proposal from Stanton County to consolidate police dispatch services at its July 16 meeting, with the idea that police and fire calls for Stanton County would be dispatched out of the Grant County Law Enforcement Center in Ulysses. Commissioner Mark McGaughey said he was approached by a Stanton County Commissioner who asked about shared dispatch services.
“At the KLPG (Kansas Legislative Policy Group) meeting, one of the Stanton County commissioners had also mentioned it and they were saying, ‘Hey, there may be an opportunity in the future, we may want to combine if there’s an ability to do it,’” McGaughey said. “There’s a bill that just passed here recently that’s called the Public Safety Access Point. What it does is it allows the 911 dollars that would normally go to Stanton County to be able to be shared over here.”
McGaughey added that there’s been “A couple counties” that have done it, but it wasn’t per legal statute.
A Public Safety Access Point, sometimes called a public-safety answering point, is a type of call center where the public's telephone calls for first responders are received and handled. It takes calls from any landline, mobile phone line, or Voice Over Internet Protocol line.
McGaughey reached out to an attorney for the Kansas Association of Counties, who said Grant County is the first to reach out regarding the subject, as well as KLPG, who referred McGaughey to Sherry Massey with the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council. Massey said there is a template they’re working on now for consolidation agreements and she would be happy to share once it’s finished.
“She said we also want to make sure both participants understand the details of call volume, backup arrangements on both sides of the agreement,” McGaughey said. “This stuff can get confusing sometimes and our goal is to ensure both parties understand what will happen from a technical standpoint so they know what they’re getting into and come to a fair agreement.”
Commissioner Marty Long said it would be negotiable between Grant and Stanton counties regarding charges and how it would work out personnel and payroll-wise.
Councilman John Martin said he could see some value in it.
“As chairman, I would say this,” Long told McGaughey, “you’ve started down this path, and you are the contact for both KLPG and KAC, and 911, and I think it’s imperative that you still continue to be our contact in the future with this 911 girl (Massey) because that sounds like who we’re waiting on. I would also encourage you to reach out to (Stanton County Commissioner) Chris Floyd and say we’re on it, this is where we’re at, we’re waiting on this girl to develop a template for us, and also our sheriff.
“And tell Chris we want to make sure Stanton County commissioners have talked this over with their sheriff.”
Martin said to let Stanton County tell Grant County what they’re comfortable with as far as financial compensation.
“And then we can work from there, rather than us tell them what it would take to do it,” Martin said.
Long said it would depend on Stanton County’s call volume compared to Grant County and whether the Grant County dispatch could absorb it.
•Long mentioned that County Clerk Sheila Brown has received the state-certified population count for Grant County.
“The state certified population is 5,616 in the city of Ulysses and 1,531 in the county for a total of 7,147 (in Grant County),” Long said. “This has dropped 50 individuals from last year’s certification.”
The highest population in Grant County was 8,012 in 1999, and the population has declined to the level last seen in 1979-1980.
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