By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
During its meeting Monday, Washington’s City Council is expected to decide a course of action regarding the city’s E-911 service.
Discussion about the E-911 matter took up a significant part of the council’s meeting Tuesday morning. The latest ongoing discussion of possibly merging the E-911 system operated by the city with Beaufort County’s E-911 system surfaced in 2003.
Mayor Archie Jennings called the E-911 matter a “multitentacle” issue of differing views.
At issue is whether the county is prepared to handle such a merger, even if the city is ready to turn over its E-911 duties to the county, when the merger could occur and if city residents would receive the same level of service if the two systems are merged.
“If we are going to do something that creates bubbles in service, we need to know that,” Mayor Pro Tempore Bobby Roberson said.
The city had been contemplating a study of merging the two E-911 systems, including an analysis of what quality of service the merged systems would provide to city residents. During the meeting, the council members reached consensus that the study is not needed.
Councilman Doug Mercer has long been a supporter of merging the two systems, with the county taking over the responsibility of handling 911 calls. He believes doing so would save taxpayers’ money by avoiding duplication of services.
Mercer said that a “manipulation” of budget information was used by some people to make a case against merging the two systems because it would cost the city money to do so.
Councilman William Pitt, a county telecommunicator with experience with E-911 systems, said the city should “handle our own” E-911 system. By doing so, there would be a 24-hour presence at the police station. Pitt said city residents “need 24-hour access to that agency.”
Merging the city’s E-911 system with the county’s system could result in the police station not being staffed around the clock, some city officials have said.
Councilman Ed Moultrie said when it comes to the city’s E-911 system, he would prefer to “leave it like it is.”
Mick Reed, chief of the Washington Police Department, said that “maintaining what we have now is the best option.”
City Manager James C. Smith said the county has offered to take over the city’s E-911 duties at a cost of about $165,000 during the first fiscal year of a merger, with the city providing $52,000 for a new E-911 console and $113,000 for costs related to hiring new employees to handle the increased E-911 traffic handled by the county. After the first year, the cost to the city would drop to $113,000 a year to pay for the three additional employees.
The $113,000 figures includes $73,000 in outside revenue the city receives each year to help pay for its E-911 system and $40,000 to pay for costs related the additional employees.
Mercer said if the merger takes place, the county would receive the $73,000 the city now receives for providing E-911 service because the county will be assuming that service. Because that money is earmarked for E-911 service, the city won’t be losing money because it won’t be providing such service and incur related expenses.
In other business, the council instructed staff to closely monitor the state’s proposal to modify water-quality standards, something that could increase the cost of treating the city’s drinking water.
“I would like for us to stay well ahead of what’s going on,” Mercer told Public Work Director Allen Lewis and Adam Waters, the city’s water-resources supervisor.
City officials and others have concerns the proposed modifications could be overly conservative in nature, too restrictive and increase costs to treat water and wastewater, which could result in passing on those increases to the city’s water and wastewater-treatment customers.
City officials said the 20 coastal counties, including Beaufort County, could be affected significantly by the proposed modifications.
For additional coverage of the meeting, including discussion about a new police station, see future editions.