IDAHO SPRINGS, Colo. — Clear Creek County Commissioners plan to formally ask Jefferson County's 911 center to take over answering emergency calls as the county shutters its own dispatch center in a money-saving move.
County commissioners said Monday that switching to Jeffcom911 will save at least half a million dollars per year and provide comparable service to residents.
"We hope that we see the same response times, the same level of understanding of their needs and the same dispatch and perhaps even a better dispatch of the right resources for the job," County Commission chair Randy Wheelock said.
Currently when someone calls 911 in Clear Creek County, a sheriff's office dispatcher answers and sends local emergency responders. Under the new plan, a Jeffcom dispatcher will answer -- but will send the same local first responders.
The move led to two hourslong public meetings this month with residents concerned over the potential change.
"You’re going to have people from the city that don’t know our weird little roads," one said.
The mayor of Silver Plume said his town board expressed concerns over the changes as well.
"Our dispatchers now are familiar with the area, they’re familiar with the people. We’re not going to get that from somebody who is based down the hill," he said.
But Clear Creek commissioners expressed certainty that Jeffcom could adequately handle the call volume.
"We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t think the Jeffcom could do as good or better than our local service," commissioner George Marlin said. "Jeffcom has a chance to do better than we were able to do at a half or a third of the cost."
He said while economics may have started the conversation about shuttering Clear Creek's dispatch center, the decision was made based on the basis of quality.
"We’ve [currently] got a team of seven people that is trying to keep a dispatch center open 24 hours a day. And that’s fairly alarming," Marlin said.
Jeffcom, he said, is better staffed, offered to hire Clear Creek's dispatchers and has experience dispatching behavioral health co-responder teams.
The county plans to formally ask Jeffcom to add its agencies in the coming weeks. Then that agency's board of directors must approve before a six-month transition period would begin.
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