In an emergency, Barrington residents may soon find their calls to the police or fire department answered by a dispatcher in Carpentersville.
Barrington trustees are considering ending the village’s dispatch system in favor of contracting the service from Quad-Com, an independent agency based in Carpentersville that now dispatches calls to nine area police and fire departments.
The Barrington Village Board is expected to vote on the proposal sometime this summer.
As the suburbs have grown, small communities have struggled with the costs of employing trained dispatchers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many municipalities already have joined larger dispatch agencies, such as Northwest Central Dispatch in Hoffman Estates or Du-Com in Wheeling.
In Barrington, the types of emergencies emergency personnel respond to have changed significantly during the last few decades, said Barrington Fire Lt. John Feit.
“Twenty years ago, we had calls with guys trapped in combines. Now, you have to look hard to find 15 people who know what a combine is,” Feit said.
And where field fires were once common, those same fields now have 300 homes on them, dramatically altering the kind of emergencies that call for a fire or police response, Feit added.
But the match that ignited the proposal in Barrington is a set of state requirements that go into effect in the year 2000, said Barrington Village Manager Robert Irvin.
Under the new regulations, emergency dispatchers will be required to stay on the phone with callers who are having a medical emergency, giving them medical advice, until paramedics arrive, Irvin said.
For Barrington, the new regulations would mean doubling the cost of operating the village’s dispatch center, Irvin said.
Currently, Barrington’s six dispatchers work each shift alone, answering calls to the police and fire departments as well as responding to routine requests from residents who come to the station, Irvin said.
Under the new regulations, “we would need two people on, and that is where the cost comes in,” he said.
Barrington officials estimate that by joining Quad-Com, they would save $282,000 a year because they would not have to hire more dispatchers.
Quad-Com maintains at least three dispatchers on each shift, with a fourth added during peak periods, said Sue Jackson, director of the 10-year-old agency.
Barrington’s six dispatchers will continue to work at the police station, around the clock, Irvin said.
“Our dispatchers have been the heart of the whole operation, and they will continue to be,” Irvin said. “They are a highly trained, dedicated group, and they feel personal responsibility for our police officers and firefighters.”
Even if Quad-Com handles dispatching duties, Barrington’s current dispatchers will be needed to process routine paperwork and take care of emergencies that might occur at the station, he said.
“If a tornado wipes out Quad-Com, we would still be able to operate–and if a tornado wipes out the public safety building, Quad-Com would still be able to operate,” Irvin said. “We have the best of both worlds.”
