ASHLAND – Ashland County is preparing to spend up to $500,000, possibly as early as the end of the month, to begin the process of upgrading technology in the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center and jail.
County officials hope the upgrades will help convince city leaders to leave the Wooster Ashland Regional Council of Governments (the dispatch center for the cities of Ashland, Wooster and Orrville) and rejoin the county’s dispatch center.
County commissioner Denny Bittle said he intends to meet with Ashland Mayor Matt Miller and technology contractor Josh Bowling of Zuercher Technologies to determine whether the technology package Zuercher has proposed for the county is compatible with the city’s existing hardware.
If it is, Bittle said he would like the county to proceed with approval of about $500,000 in expenditures for phases one and two of a three-phase technology upgrade. The total project is expected to cost about $800,000.
Meanwhile, Ashland Fire Department staff and administrators at both the police and fire departments say they are happy with WARCOG.
“We’re vehemently opposed to any move back to Ashland County as a union,” said Ashland Fire Captain and Ashland Fire Local 1386 president Mark Miller.
Miller said the union body met Tuesday to discuss how to address the issue, and members decided it was time to make their stance clear.
“We’ve tried to stay quiet about this because we don’t want to have relationships with various agencies suffer, but at the same time, we’re not interested in seeing the city change services,” he said. “We’re certainly aware that there are ongoing discussions about considering a move back to the county dispatch.”
Miller said he believes such a move would be “a big step backward,” especially after the city has made a significant investment in the startup of WARCOG.
The Wooster Daily Record reported in December that Ashland paid more than $618,000 in startup costs to set up WARCOG.
Aside from dollars and cents, Miller said the safety of officers and first responders should be a top priority as the city makes its decision.
“We’re confident that we’re being provided a far superior system than what we once had, and there’s much more flexibility and input on our part with operations, policies and procedures,” Miller said.
While most of city council’s public discussion about dispatch in recent months has surrounded technology and whether Ashland County could upgrade its capabilities to match WARCOG’s, Miller said the union body sees advanced technology as a benefit but not as a deciding factor.
“I don’t think it’s an issue of who has better equipment,” he said. “It wasn’t their equipment that made us leave. Technology is insignificant compared to the procedural issues and the ability to adapt and change.”
Miller emphasized he feels both WARCOG and the county’s dispatch center have good staff.
“The personnel isn’t the issue. It’s the policies,” he said.
Miller said the union invites and encourages city council members to visit the fire department to meet the staff and discuss their experiences with dispatch.
“Nobody knows our job better than we do,” he said. “If you haven’t stepped foot in a police station or a fire station, you don’t know enough about how the system works.”
Capt. Mark Miller said Mayor Matt Miller met with fire department leadership Wednesday and also agreed to meet with the union body. City council members have not solicited input from the union directly.
Ashland Fire Chief Rick Anderson said he has no comment about the county’s dispatch center but said he is “very happy with the service” at WARCOG.
“It’s consistent, and if there are any issues that come up, we have board of directors meetings and operations committee meetings,” Anderson said. “There’s a process to get it addressed.”
As the city was making its decision to leave the county dispatch center and start WARCOG in 2015, city staff cited their lack of input on operations in the county’s dispatch center as one of the main concerns.
Bittle suggested last week that in order for the city to rejoin the county’s dispatch center, there would need to be an advisory committee in place to give the city input into the center’s operations.
Ashland County Sheriff E. Wayne Risner is in charge of the county’s dispatch center and did not return phone calls for this story.
Police Chief David Marcelli expressed views similar to Anderson’s.
“I know that we’re very happy with the system we have in place,” Marcelli said. “There was a reason we made this move to collectively collaborate, and we’ve been very happy with what we’ve accomplished.”
Both Marcelli and Anderson suggested officials in Ashland County could look into joining WARCOG rather than upgrading their own facility and trying to bring the city back.
County commissioners say they have no intention of joining WARCOG and have not seriously considered it.
Wooster Mayor Robert Breneman said Wayne County is also considering significant expenditures as it looks to upgrade and expand its Justice Center.
In light of the discussions happening in both counties, Breneman suggested this would be a good time for all parties — including WARCOG members and Ashland and Wayne counties — to “have a conversation about what’s best for everybody moving forward.”
WARCOG director Nancy Jewitt said she plans to put together a proposal for Ashland and Wayne counties to join WARCOG, and Bittle said he plans to put together a proposal for the City of Ashland to rejoin Ashland County’s dispatch center.
