City to relocate its police, dispatch

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
In response to the ultimatum given to the city of Newcastle by the Board of Weston County Commissioners regarding that body’s dispatch concerns, the city has decided to move the dispatch center and the Newcastle Police Department to City Hall by March 8, 2022. The decision was made after an executive session during the City Council’s Sept. 20 meeting. 
“There are concerns that this may affect how the agencies work together, but that was already a concern,” Mayor Pam Gualtieri told the News Letter Journal.  “Hopefully, it is kind of like a bad marriage. Once you finally get divorced, you finally get along.” 
She said that the city hopes that the entities involved in emergency services in the county can continue to work together so that public safety needs are met. 
The commissioners expressed similar hopes after Gualtieri delivered the news on Sept. 21 during the commissioners regular meeting. 
“From my perspective, the intent is to serve the community in the best possible way. … We have to address the concerns of everyone,” Commissioner Don Taylor said. “I hope we can resolve this in a way that works for everyone.” 
Gualtieri explained that the council, police department and dispatch are willing to continue working with the county while providing dispatch services to all of the county’s entities from the new location. 
The council, commissioners and other entities – potentially including the town of Upton, Weston County Sheriff’s Department, EMS and fire services — will meet to continue discussions regarding dispatch services on Oct. 19. An official time and location for this discussion is yet to be determined. 
In response to the county’s concerns regarding dispatch’s handling of calls, Gualtieri said that dispatch personnel prioritized calls “properly” based on the nature of the calls and conveyed the information they were able to gather. 
“The last thing dispatch wants is a threat to an officer, deputy, firefighter or EMT,” Gualtieri said. “Their safety is just as important as their own.” 
The city also provided updates on its potential decision to go with the CIS-updated program rather than switching to the Spillman system as the county had wished. As previously reported, the Spillman system would have cost the city and county over $500,000, and the city rescinded its motion to pay half of that amount in favor of an update to the current system. 
“They talked about how we abruptly rescinded the motion on Aug. 17. Chairman Ertman (Marty) was notified a week before on Aug. 9,” Gualtieri said. 
According to Gualtieri, the city has to be fiscally responsible and that the CIS system saves a significant amount
of money. 
In regards to addressing technical issues with dispatch and patrol vehicles, the council accepted a bid from Motorola to replace radios. The total cost of the bid was $296,000. 
“This will solve the No. 1 problem. Everything (CAD updates) is a want. The radios is a need being taken care of,” Gualtieri said, noting that the CAD system updates should be available by the end of the year.