Countywide fire dispatch system is in the works for Northumberland

By Dylan O’Hagan

BELLEVILLE — A newly proposed fire dispatch initiative is in the works in Northumberland County that would merge seven existing dispatch systems.

It’s called the Fire Services of Northumberland County Fire Dispatch Initiative 2015 and suggests one common dispatch system will serve the area better. The initiative would serve the entire county using one common dispatch and radio system. A county report says the plan would result in an overall cost savings of 6.5 per cent per year if all municipalities joined, although the cost of dispatch services would increase by two per cent for the entire county.

Northumberland County’s current setup of fire-dispatch services. Courtesy of northumberlandcounty.ca

The seven municipalities are Port Hope, Hamilton Township, Cobourg, Brighton, Trent Hills, Cramahe and Alnwick. Currently, funding and contracting for fire dispatch is each local municipality’s responsibility, although some use the same dispatch services.

The government of Northumberland County would be taking on all fire-dispatch costs in the future if the new dispatch initiative were approved. Five out of seven municipalities have to be on board for the plan to go through.

Hamilton Township is the only municipality that has declined to join the initiative.

Hamilton council didn’t agree with the costing model involved, said Arthur Anderson, the township’s chief administrative officer. The township would prefer to pay for the service based on the number of calls needed for Hamilton, he said.

“Hamilton council has considered the report and their position is that they would like the costing model to reflect usage or call volumes as the way to pay for this service.”

Anderson added that Hamilton Township is currently using the Peterborough fire dispatch service, which is the same service the county is leaning toward using in the future.

The initiative is still being discussed among the local municipalities and will be returning to county council for further discussion.