The issue of whether to move the current 911 call center under the oversight of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office or create separate management for the center arose again in the Jan. 5 meeting of the Beaufort County Commissioners.

The discussion revolved forming a committee to look into forming a new entity under its own management, with oversight coming from a board of stakeholders.

Commissioner Hood Richardson has long argued the need to remove the service from the sheriff’s responsibility and alluded to the fact that commissioners had previously decided to do that once former Sheriff Alan Jordan left office.

“I think we need to do a lot of study of this issue before we make any decisions,” Commissioner Ron Buzzeo told the board.

According to Commissioner Jerry Langley, the idea is to enhance the service and create a new agency — a plan seemingly built into the recently halted proposal for a new public safety facility that also included a new jail and sheriff’s office.

“What we envisioned is this is a 911 center that has a 911 director,” Langley said, adding that a governing board would come from a section of first responders in the county, that it should be “governed by people who are doing the responding and not anyone who doesn’t know anything about it.”

Commissioner Frankie Waters told the board he’d fielded several calls about both the issues of EMS and 911. Waters, who hails from the northeastern part of the county, said timely resolution is necessary, considering the gap in medical service that occurred when the doors to Vidant Pungo Hospital in Belhaven were closed mid-2014, after Vidant Health and stakeholders in the hospital’s operation failed to reach a mutually agreeable situation that would keep the hospital open.

“I’m kind of in agreement for having some kind of task force and we need to give it a timeframe,” Waters said. “We can’t have 20 people on the committee, but surely we can have enough people to represent all the stakeholders.”

Commissioner Robert Belcher, who backed the need for a standalone 911 center, brought up another 911 issue that also needs resolution, this one of a more immediate nature: complaints that on some occasions, the county’s first responders are not receiving alerts on their pagers. According to some emergency officials, the problem likely lies in radio reception from one of the towers in the eastern part of the county.

The discussion about 911 was introduced earlier in the evening, however. During the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting, Pantego Volunteer Fire Chief Derrick Myers told commissioners that an informal poll found that 9 of the 13 county fire chiefs are against moving 911 from the sheriff’s office to Beaufort County Emergency Management, should that be an option.

“We think they are doing a fine job now,” Myers said, adding that he would like to know Sheriff Ernie Coleman’s view on 911’s potential move to another agency.

The Board of Commissioners voted, 6-1, to have county staff to identify stakeholders and form a study committee to ultimately make recommendations regarding 911’s future.