CHENEY – The City Council listen to a proposal to transition the local dispatch center to Spokane Regional Emergency Communications during its meeting March 26.
Spokane Regional Emergency Communications Executive Director Lori Markham pushed the idea. Her agency manages emergency and non-emergency calls, support GIS data services and operates 23 radio sites for emergency responders in the region.
“Our IT department takes care of our phone system which is a very highly technical system,” Markham said.
“We’re in the process of merging our CAD system with fire and a law system.”
With 73 dispatchers and 16 supervisors, the organization handles a substantial volume of calls, making it the largest agency on the east side of the state.
Councilman Paul Schmidt asked, “Are we going to be paying more or less than our current system?”
“It’s hard to say. We had a rough estimate at the beginning of the year,” Police Chief Rick Beghtol said. “Some of the things we are able to do now we won’t be able to do in the future. It might be a little bit more at first.”
“If we kept with our same dispatch, it’s not gonna be that expensive,” Beghtol said.
Clare is an Eastern Washington University graduate and a reporter at Free Press Publishing.
Reader Comments(0)