By: Renea Kessler
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
renea@thevillagereporter.com
Sheriff Tom Kochert participated in an executive session with the Williams County Commissioners approximately four months ago to discuss the oversight of 911 Communications.
During the meeting, Commissioner Hilkert mentioned that he had spoken with representatives from Fulton County and Henry County regarding their experiences with the sheriff overseeing 911 communications. Both counties reported that this arrangement is functioning very well.
The sheriff has previously stated that in counties with a population of 750,000 or fewer, communication responsibilities should fall under the sheriff’s office.
Currently, these communications are managed by the county commissioners, though the commissioners have the authority to hand this responsibility over to the sheriff.
One issue with this arrangement is that once the sheriff’s term ends, the newly elected sheriff has the option to either continue the communications under their office or return them to the commissioners.
Hilkert mentioned that then-Sheriff Steve Towns presented the commissioners with a similar proposal several years ago, but the commissioners chose not to consider it.
“My opinion is we have a sheriff now that is doing an excellent job and would have good oversight of it,” Hilkert said.
Commissioner Terry Rummel expressed his interest in discussing a potential collaboration with the City of Bryan to merge the communication systems for both the city and the county.
He noted that having separate systems has led to delays and confusion. For example, if someone makes a call from within Bryan using a cell phone, the call is initially directed to the county communications before being transferred to the city.
There was a brief discussion about dispatcher training. County dispatchers are trained to provide medical information, whereas city dispatchers may not be.
It was also mentioned that the county spends approximately $700,000 annually on the communications department.
Commissioner Hilkert motioned to give the sheriff’s office oversight of the county emergency communications department starting January 1st. However, Commissioner Rummel requested more time for discussions.
“I would respectfully ask Commissioner Westfall to not second that motion,” Rummel said. “For the future, we can make this happen without shoving this down people’s throats. If you second this, you are setting us up for failure.”
Hilkert rejected the second motion, expressing his desire for further discussion with the sheriff during an open session. As a result, he withdrew the motion.
Before any actions could be taken, a 911 committee would need to be established. However, it was noted that the existing 911 Committee, which is responsible for working with Next Gen 911, could be utilized for this purpose.