12/05/2006 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12/5/2006 Olmsted dispatch has never made a mistake. He said other inaccuracies included statements of increased cost or of increased response time. He would suggest that Council owes more to residents than to base their decision on those presentations rather than the facts presented by his administration and by the leadership of the Central Dispatch Center. Response time improved by about 40 seconds for every city that joined the central dispatch. Additionally, coordination was direct and immediate when mutual aid was needed. It can clearly be postulated that joining the Central Dispatch Center will reduce our response time and increase the speed of working with our neighbors far beyond the few seconds that it will take to transfer an incoming call to the CDC. Another fact is the training and technology at West Com CDC are at least as good as North Olmsted. We currently pay about $620,000 annually for one dispatcher all the time and most of the time two in North Olmsted. Compare that to two dispatchers around-the- clock and often three at the Central Dispatch Center. Our cost, if we choose to stay in 2008, would be $200,000. That's twice the coverage of dispatchers at one-third of the cost. That is a very clear description of the value of regionalism. Our collective goal as elected representatives should be to provide the highest quality of services at the least expense to our taxpayers. As stated by the administration, when there is a life threatening situation or one that appears to be life threatening, the Central Dispatch Center immediately dispatches the closest unit to provide the quickest response and to provide the quality services that our citizens desire. We cannot do that on our own because we are not seated at the table. If we are not part of the Central Dispatch, our safety services to our citizens will suffer. He recognizes and is very proud of the high quality and dedication of our fire services and our dispatch personnel. But he also recognizes we can be better. If we join the Central Dispatch Center, our citizens will have faster response time, better coordination with our neighbors and additional dispatchers, all at no cost to our citizens for the year 2007. If our city ignores these facts and again chooses not to join the Central Dispatch Center, we will become the hole in the doughnut as all communities around us join Central Dispatch. Already there are inquiries from North Ridgeville, Avon, Avon Lake and Olmsted Township to be considered for membership in Central Dispatch. Among the five cities that were originally considered for membership in the Central Dispatch Center, five mayors and fire chiefs and four city councils recognize the value of membership. He invites Council's support on this important issue which will bring greater response time and greater security to our citizens. Among the two newspapers that have covered this issue, both have encouraged the North Olmsted City Council to support this issue. Regarding the heavy rain last Thursday and Friday, Councilman Barker thanked Service Director Limpert, the Service Department, and the Wastewater Treatment Plant for their due diligence in taking care of the situation. He noted that Bob Binggeli and crew were diligently working at the LeBern lift station all day Friday and Friday evening. They were on top of the problem, took care of it, and saved a lot of basements from flooding. He did not receive one report of flooding in his ward. Mayor O'Grady said he echoed those comments and noted the only person who gets less sleep than he does during these rain events is Service Director Limpert. Thanks to him and his employees. 3