What will be Will County’s largest 911 dispatch center is taking shape, not just physically but also legally, as its 31 agencies are in the process of approving the intergovernmental agreement to create this consolidated center.
To comply with a state mandate to reduce dispatch centers by 50 percent, four facilities in Will County are combining into the new Laraway Communications Center under construction as part of the county’s new public safety complex at Route 52 and Laraway Road.
The goal is to be more cost-effective and reduce call transfers to save time, said Nick Palmer, chief of staff for County Executive Larry Walsh.
When completed at the end of this year, it will be the largest facility in Will County in number of agencies and call volume, according to its executive director, Brad Veerman. The other two centers are the city of Joliet’s and the Western Will County Communications Center, which serves 21 police and fire agencies from Bolingbrook to Wilmington.
The four facilities in the merger — the Will County sheriff’s, the Lincolnway Communications Center, the Eastern Will County Communications Center and Romeoville’s — have hammered out a 20-year agreement to join and bylaws to operate the new dispatch center.
“We didn’t want to do this, but we had to,” said Veerman, currently director of the Lincolnway Communication Center, who was narrowly elected as executive director of the new center.
The agreement was approved Thursday by the Will County Board and in recent weeks by the Forest Preserve District of Will County and the villages of Frankfort and Braidwood.
Fire districts that have signed on include Frankfort, New Lenox, Mokena, Manhattan, East Joliet, Peotone and Crete Township, according to Veerman.
He said he is “confident” all others will approve the agreement in the next couple of weeks.
“It was hairy for a while,” he said of the meetings to draft these bylaws. “There are still a lot of what-ifs.”
He has estimated it will cost $5.3 million annually to run the new facility, less than the four centers now pay collectively.
Will County is constructing the $29.5 million building that will house the sheriff’s department and the administrative offices for the county’s 911 system, as well as the new dispatch center.
The 911 folks will pay rent to the county for their respective spaces.
Frankfort police Chief John Burica recently told village officials he expects to pay less than they now pay to the Lincolnway Communications Center.
But until everyone has signed on, members do not yet know their exact costs, how many dispatchers will be needed, or what salary and insurance costs will be, Veerman said.
Each member will contribute 10 percent of its costs as a startup fee, which will be considered part of its first-year budget.
According to its bylaws, the center will be governed by a board of directors, with one representative from each agency, plus an executive board comprised of seven members from the board of directors — three from police agencies, three from fire departments and one from the sheriff’s department. They will serve two-year terms without compensation.
The board of directors will determine the sharing charges for all agencies, which will be based on call volume, Veerman said.
Members will meet Feb. 22 to approve the bylaws.
