Proposal to change the supervision of the Dispatch Center moves one step closer to reality

Winneshiek County Supervisors Monday morning reacted favorably to a proposal to change the supervision of the city/county dispatch center to being the responsibility of the Emergency Management Agency Commission.

Under the proposal, dispatchers would switch from being City of Decorah employees to being Winneshiek County employees.  Funding of the Dispatch Center's roughly $440,000 a year budget would then become the county's responsibility, although the City of Decorah would write the county a check for 44 percent of the cost.

EMA Commission member Mike Klimesh told county supervisors Monday that the plan would then include having the EMA Commission borrow $1 million to help the 9-1-1 Board put up new communications equipment throughout the county.  Klimesh told supervisors MiEnergy has agreed to give the county space on four new towers MiEnergy will build over the next few years, in exchange for MiEnergy getting space on the county's new tower just outside Decorah.  The new equipment would help solve the communications problems which sometimes pop up in parts of the county.

Winneshiek County Board Chair John Logsdon praised the proposal as "a pretty good move for the safety of the county," while supervisors Mark Kuhn told the EMA Commission representatives, "I appreciate the tower component of this."

The change in the supervision of the city/county dispatch center will also be discussed at Monday night's Decorah City Council meeting.