Bernards To Look to County For Police Dispatch

After being on a proposal to jointly operate the towns' police dispatching services, the Bernards Township Committee is looking to sign up for police and other emergency dispatching through Somerset County. 

Township Administrator Bruce McArthur said the proposal, given the go-ahead last week by the Township Committee, is an arrangement that seemed to be "inevitable," later if not sooner.

An existing contract for joint dispatching service with neighboring Long Hill Township will end in April, when that municipality has decided to seek its emergency dispatching through Morris County's communications center.

McArthur said that Somerset County at this point does not charge the five municipalities that rely on county communications for their dispatching service. Morris County will split costs among its towns that seek county dispatching service, he said. 

The Township Committee emerged from an executive session last Tuesday and agreed to work out an agreement with Somerset County to provide dispatching service that would begin on or around April 1, McArthur said. 

A resolution approved by Township Committee members directed Township Police Chief Brian Bobowicz to convey Bernards Township's intentions to the Director of Somerset County Communications, the Somerset County prosecutor, county administrator, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

"The Chief of Police, (township) CFO/administrator and their designees [will] begin working on the operational and financial details of this proposed transfer of services," the resolution said.

Township officials began looking for an alternative when Long Hill Township earlier this year informed Bernards Township that municipality would not seek to renew its joint dispatching contract when the current agreement between the two towns expires in April.

Long Hill and Bernards had been splitting annual costs of about $850,000 to operate a dispatching center from the Bernards Township police department at 1 Collyer Lane, McArthur said.

However, the number of township dipatchers has been whittled from 12 to nine — especially after Bernards in June began relying on the county dispatch center for 9-1-1 calls, McArthur said.

Without Long Hill, it would cost Bernards about $600,000 to continue operating a "bare bones" dispatching center for police and local fire and rescue operations in the township, McArthur said.

However, although the county's dispatching service currently is free, it will cost Bernards Township about $600,000 for a one-shot investment in equipment the county is on a different radio frequency, he said.

The estimated $600,000 investment will cover the cost of such new equipment as radios for police fire company and first aid squads, McArthur said.

Initially Bernards had approached Bernardsville to share dispatching service, since that town's equpment is compatible with Bernards.
However, in late July, the Bernardsville Borough Council voted to decline the offer to share Bernards' system for an annual charge of $225,000.

Since then, McArthur said the township had contacted another municipality to try to discuss sharing dispatch services, although those discussions had never gotten off the ground, he said last Friday.

"It in my mind was inevitable that we would go with the county," McArthur said.

Branchburg police have used the county's dispatching services for about 15 years, while neighboring towns such as Bedminster and Far Hills have since joined the county system, McArthur said.

The county itself extended a feeler to Bernards recently when it presented a "window of opportunity" for the township to shorten the time period in which a working agreement could be set up about two years, to a projected date of April. The county has been in talks regarding a similar arrangement for quite a while with two larger municipalities in Somerset County, he said.

"It's a classic shared service," McArthur said.

One aspect of the proposal that could be viewed as a downside is that dispatchers now working for the township will have their positions eliminated. However, McArthur said some of those employees already have been job hunting given the uncertainty created by the end of the contract with Long Hill.

McArthur said one or two of the dispatchers may be kept on in other roles. The hope is that other "career dispatchers" may be able to shift over to the county's growing dispatch staff, he said.

Bernards Township had given Bernardsville Borough a "final offer" of $225,000 to join the two towns' police dispatching center, McArthur said last month. The two towns currently have compatible equipment, especially since Bernardsville has said the county's radio frequency results in dead spots on Bernardsville Mountain. In addition, the two closely-related municipalities provide back-up for police and other emergency services, McArthur said last month.

Bernardsville currently operates its own dispatch center for a quoted cost of about $300,000. But Bernardsville Borough Councilman Joe Rossi, contacted after the Bernardsville Council's no vote in late July, said the potential cost savings for the borough might be as little as about $25,000 when all was considered. He said the potential savings were not significant enough to disrupt a tightly coordinated dispatch service that works as an integral part of the borough's police and emergency services response.

Bernardsville Mayor Lee Honecker put the savings more at $75,000 to $80,000, but added that Bernardsville may be looking in the future for savings of $300,000 if the county is able to resolve technology problems that now make it difficult for communiciations in parts of Bernardsville's hilly terrain.