Bernards Could Spend $600K to Equip For County Dispatch

During 2012, the is expecting to make a historic change in its operations by switching its dispatch service to relying on the county's system rather than having dispatchers operate from police headquarters on Collyer Lane.

The change requires the township to invest up to $600,000 for an upgraded, higher-frequency emergency communications system that would be compatible with the communications system used by Somerset County, officials said.

The township made the for all of its emergency dispatch services earlier this year, after Long Hill Township announced its intention to terminate a shared dispatch contract that expires in April, 2012. The two towns had been splitting the annual $850,000 cost of operating a local dispatch service, Township Administrator Bruce McArthur said last summer.

The township then was on a proposal to jointly operate the towns' dispatching services, and then looked to the county for emergency dispatching for police, fire companies and rescue squads.

The county dispatching system, which already serves a number of municipalities throughout Somerset, is funded on a countywide basis. But first the township must equip police and other emergency responders with the newer, high frequency communications equipment used by the county, police chief Brian Bobowicz explained late last week. "We need to use a radio system compatible with their system," the chief said.

Final vote due Dec. 27

The Bernards Township Committee is scheduled to take a final vote on Dec. 27 on whether to approve the expenditure. The Township Committee already gave preliminary approval to the expenditure last week.

The amount would be taken from the township's capital improvement fund rather than borrowing through selling bonds. Any grant monies received for the new equipment would be applied toward reducing the amount, according to the proposal to fund the new equipment.

The ordinance would finance all equipment necessary to migrate its emergency communications to Somerset County including but not limited to radio and communication equipment, software, data migration, and security improvements, according to the ordinance.

Without Long Hill or another town sharing its dispatch system, it would cost Bernards about $600,000 to continue operating a "bare bones" dispatching center for police and local fire and rescue operations within the township, McArthur estimated last summer.

The township already made a move toward joining the county dispatch service last June, when Bernards began relying on the county's dispatch center for 9-1-1 calls, McArthur previously said.

The number of township dispatchers had been whittled from 12 to nine last summer — and is down to seven at this time, Bobowicz said last week.

Plans to keep one or two dispatchers

However, the plan as of now is to keep one or two dispatchers at the township police headquarters even after signing on with the county dispatch service to continue to serve walk-in members of the public who stop by the department, and to provide additional support to officers, Bobowicz said.

However, that plan is subject to revision, and has not yet been approved by the Township Committee, Bobowicz said.

The dispatchers likely would be reclassified at "police support specialists," the chief said. Those employees likely would be at headquarters during weekday shifts, he said. The final job description for those positions also has not been decided, he said.

The current lower-frequency system still will operate and remain a viable backup/support system, and provide adequate person to person operability outside the county-trunked radio system, according to the ordinance awaiting final approval.

The township's old equipment is compatible with the dispatch equipment used by Bernardsville, where officials have said that the county's radio communications leaves "dead zones" in hilly sections of the borough.

Significant lead time is needed for the order and delivery of the new pagers, mobile radios, portable radios, and base station for the upgraded communications system, according to the ordinance to face a final vote on Dec. 27.

Bernards Township still is investigating whether the new system will require additional appropriations for funding during 2012, according to the ordinance. The portable communications equipment is "much higher in cost than originally quoted," resulting in a need to reduce the total number of radios ordered from a "want" a “need” basis for the volunteer fire and emergency medical service agencies, the ordinance said.