City asks county to discuss dispatch services

Special meeting scheduled for Wednesday
 
A solution to the ongoing dispatch dispute between Newcastle and Weston County could be on the horizon if a joint meeting scheduled for Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers goes well. 
 
For at least the past eight years, the News Letter Journal has covered the ongoing squabble between the two government entities. The Feb.  22 meeting is considered a last-ditch effort by some to set the bickering between the two local governments aside and work together to find a solution. 
 
Disagreements between the city and county resulted in the eviction of the Newcastle Police Department and dispatch services from the Weston County Law Enforcement Center. The actual move to the remodeled City Hall has yet to take place, however. The Board of Weston County Commissioners voted to start a second dispatch center to service county entities after the Newcastle City Council declined to negotiate a joint powers board agreement with the county and the town of Upton. 
 
“This special meeting has been called for the purpose of discussing, understanding, showing and seeing both the city’s and the county’s side of dispatch to be in understanding of each other’s direction, as well as, to see if a solution can be worked out,” Mayor Pam Gualtieri said in an email to city and county officials requesting the meeting. 
 
“On behalf of the city council, we would like to express our appreciation to a continued working relationship,” she continued, noting that attendance by the commissioners or a county representative is important. 
 
Commissioner Don Taylor, Councilman Tyrel Owens and other members of both governing boards have been adamant over the past two years that two dispatch centers is not the right solution to end the ongoing debate. 
 
“I don’t think two dispatches is the answer to any of the problems. We are all in this together,” Owens said during the council’s regular meeting on Feb. 6. “Newcastle is part of the county, and I think we need to get this figured out.” 
 
Other government officials including Sheriff Bryan Colvard and Weston County emergency management coordinator Gilbert Nelson have stated on several occasions that the two entities working together to avoid two dispatch centers is the most feasible and fiscally responsible option.
A Campbell County Copy?
While Weston County and Newcastle have been battling and potentially separating dispatch services, Campbell County and Gillette are again trying to do the opposite. 
 
According to the Jan. 31 Gillette News Record story “A joint effort,” the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and Gillette Police Department are working to combine the two dispatch centers servicing that county. For some time, the story says, Gillette and Campbell County have been the only city and county in the state to operate two separate dispatch centers.
 
If officials in Newcastle and Weston County continue down their current path, Campbell County and Gillette will have company, but officials there are making efforts to unite.
 
According to the story, this is the third time Sheriff Scott Matheny has been involved in the conversation and has worked to combine the two dispatch entities. 
 
“From an operational standpoint, it makes sense because ‘it has everybody on the same page, everything comes out of the same office,’” Matheny says in the story. 
 
In the story, Fire Chief Jeff Bender adds that “from a taxpayer’s perspective, it’s more efficient and avoids the duplication of services.” The last time the entities tried to come together, in the mid-2010s, the Gillette City Council supported the efforts but the Board of Campbell County Commissioners voted down a joint dispatch in 2016. 
 
“At the time, there were concerns about what would happen if one side didn’t hold up its side of the bargain, and there also were trust issues between the city and county,” the story says. 
 
The story notes that the two entities were unable to work an agreement because they could not get on the same page. 
 
“The city wanted a joint powers board or joint powers contract, while the county wanted to avoid both,” the story says. 
 
The Gillette-Campbell County story appears to be eerily similar to the ongoing situation in Newcastle and Weston County, which has been advocating for a joint powers board. 
 
The proposed Gillette-Campbell County governing joint powers board would employ a director to oversee joint dispatch operations, and draft documents are being considered by the affected entities, according to the News Record.