The Warren County Emergency Communications Center has placed a quarter-cent sales tax increase, Proposition Emergency Dispatching, on the April 8 ballot. This is the first time the communications center has asked for a tax increase since their existing sales tax was passed in 1994. 

Amy Leach, the administrator at the communications center, said the increase will be used to fund the hiring of additional 911 dispatchers, expand the dispatch center and upgrade their public safety radio system. 

“We’re not in financial arrears where we need money, we have reserves,” said Leach. “But we can’t plan for the future because we don’t have enough reserves.”

She said the agency cannot foot the bill for much-needed expansions as the community continues to grow and call volumes increase. 

The sales tax is the dispatch center’s only source of revenue, and the only way they can receive additional funds is by passing a tax increase, according to Leach. 

“We’ve been working on the same sales tax for 30 years, the exact same amount,” said Leach. “If the businesses don’t come in to generate that revenue, we aren’t able to plan for the future, because we don’t even know what our monthly income is going to be until it comes in.”

According to a press release from the center, call volumes have increased by 115% since 2008 and the county’s population has increased by 72%, placing a significant burden on the agency’s dispatchers. 

The center currently employs 16 dispatchers and recently increased to four dispatchers per shift. Those dispatchers work 12-hour shifts fielding 911 calls and directing first responders and emergency personnel. 

If the sales tax increase is passed, the funds will first be used to hire four more dispatchers, one per shift, which Leach said will help alleviate issues with rising call volumes. 

The second priority is to expand the dispatch center, which was built in 1996. 

“When they built this building, they didn’t build it for growth, so that’s another thing we would be able to fund, is a building expansion,” said Leach. 

She went on to say that in the current facility, dispatchers are “on top of each other,” and once additional dispatchers are hired the area will become even more cramped. 

Renovating the center comes with challenges, as the building is like a bunker and is constructed to withstand a number of natural disasters to maintain 911 service. 

“We’re tornado resistant, fire resistant, all of that, and that adds to the cost. We have to be at a certain level in our structure,” said Leach. 

While plans are still being finalized, the expansion would push the north wall of the building out into the parking lot to allow for more space on the interior. From there they would also extend the parking lot and add additional parking space on top of the building. 

Leach said that due to the construction of the building, expanding upward was not a feasible option. 

The final objective with the sales tax increase is to improve their public safety radio system. 

Leach said with their current system they are able to divide calls between the radio frequencies for police, EMS and fire districts, however they cannot subdivide any further. 

She said this creates a dangerous situation where the dispatch centers are operating on the same frequencies that first responders use to communicate to each other. 

“Right now, if I dispatch a fire truck or an ambulance to a call, I dispatch on the same channel they use to communicate back and forth, which is unsafe,” said Leach. 

She also said the additional channels could be used to isolate larger incidents to their own frequencies so they do not interrupt the operations of other first responders. 

One example was a large fire that occurred at the Universal Galvanizing plant in Wright City on Jan. 21, where the new radio channels could have been used to place all the responders to that channel on their own frequency. 

“We could have put that call itself on one tactical channel, and all the incoming units could have went to that channel, instead of fire being on one channel, EMS being on another channel, law enforcement being on their channel,” said Leach. 

Leach said, if passed, she expected the tax increase to go into effect in August and said they would move forward first with hiring additional dispatchers immediately. 

The training process takes three to six months according to Leach, after which new dispatchers would be put to work. She said the other, larger improvements would be further down the road once they could get designs finalized.