Rossford to use county dispatching

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ROSSFORD – City Council voted unanimously Monday night to give administrators the authority to negotiate
a new dispatching contract with the Wood County Sheriff’s Office.
The cost presented by Public Safety Committee Chairman Daniel Wagner said the annual cost of the service
would be $65,210 to hire and train a dispatcher and $6,448 for maintenance costs.
There would also be $37,730 in startup fees, plus an unknown amount for transferring telephone lines.
The city will also have the opportunity to contract for other services "a la carte," as needed
and for additional fees, Wagner said.
The city had been considering joining a dispatching consortium with Northwood, Walbridge and Lake
Township. Lake has been doing the dispatching for the city, but the entities now need to update their
services to digital technology.
Mayor Neil MacKinnon said he approached Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn about the possibility of contracting with
his agency. At that point, he said, it looked like the city’s cost for dispatching would increase from
$130,000 a year to $300,000 "in round numbers."
He also said that said that the sheriff promised his office would "dedicate a separate channel for
the fire department when on active runs."
The city must provide six months notice to Lake before ending its contract, and it will take some time to
hire and train a dispatcher, prompting council to pass the resolution on its first reading.
The Public Safety Committee, Wagner reported, voted unanimously "to place dispatching services with
Wood County."
Council also voted unanimously to amend its budget and make three purchase for the Police Department.
The city will buy three 800MHZ radios and a scan-head device, Cellebrite USA software, and a 2014
Interceptor Sedan.
The car will be purchased with $23,950 from the Law Enforcement Trust Funds. These are funds, Wagner
said, the city garners through drug seizures.
The radios and scan-head device will be purchased for $14,319 from funds donated to the city from Penn
National, the operator of the Hollywood Casino, which sits just outside the city limits in Toledo.
The software will enable police to download information from cell phones, computers and other digital
devices, even if that information has been deleted. It will be purchased with $12,935 with money
collected from drug offense fines.
All this money, explained Finance Director Karen Freeman, is already in the budget.

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