WELLSVILLE — Following months of discussion and research regarding the Wellsville Fire Department’s request to switch to the county 911 system for dispatch, the safety committee says no.

The newly formed safety committee, recently created to do away with department liaisons, met on Tuesday to discuss the issue further and made the recommendation not to send the matter onto the Wellsville Village Council for consideration.

The consensus among everyone present was the cost of the switch combined with the uncertainty of future revenue and changing technology in equipment was the primary reason to not move forward with the change

In attendance at the meeting were Wellsville Council/Safety Committee members Cindy Mick, Aaron Smith, Keith Thorn, Karen Dash; Mayor Bob Boley; Council Member Mike Lombardozzi; Police Chief Eddie Wilson, Police Lt. Marsha Eisenhart, Village Solicitor Chris Weeda and Fiscal Officer Hoi Wah Yu.

Fire Chief Barry Podwel has been requesting the change for several months now, saying the primary reason for the request is liability and response times and not having enough people to respond. He previously noted that the firefighters are the ones who man the radio and dispatch and when there is a call in the village, the firefighter on dispatch cannot leave the radio to answer the call unless they can get an officer from the police department to man the radio.

He also noted the between splitting the cost of using the county’s 911 dispatch between the fire department and the Wellsville Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD). The department has the funds to cover the costs.

Eisenhart has said that with two officers on duty, having an officer on the radio would leave an officer responding alone to calls that could put a solo officer at risk, such as domestic violence calls and the police department does not have the funds to pay for the extra equipment that would be needed to switch to the county dispatch.

Smith asked how often the fire department needs an officer to come over and man the radio so firefighters can respond to a call and if the police department has an issue with having an officer man the radio if needed.

Wilson said they typically call in another firefighter if available and he also said that years ago it was one firefighter and one police officer working the radios together. He also said this was a big problem as the radios cannot be left unattended, and they can only pull an officer if they have enough officers on duty, that he can’t pull them from the road.

“We have a lot of problems here,” Thorn said. “First of all if this guy leaves the desk and leaves it unattended, we have problems getting police calls, we have problems if another fire call comes in, we have problems if a medical emergency happens and they call us instead of calling the ambulance, is there someone that is going to take care of them. So, we got a bunch of problems here.”

Boley questioned when the firefighters were on a fire call on Friday night, what would have happened if another fire call happened.

Wilson questioned if they went to the county’s dispatch system why the fire department would need to maintain daily round the clock staffing at the department.

There was discussion on whether an off-duty firefighter could respond to a call so the one duty manning the radio could stay on the radio.

Weeda asked what was in the firefighters’ contract and was told by Yu there isn’t a contract. Thorn responded that there should be an ordinance drafted for police and fire contracts, and Weeda said he would look into that. He also asked what the policy manual said.

Podwel had previously mentioned that a lot of the issues regarding dispatch stem from not having the staffing response to calls and often times it is just the person on the phones who would be available to respond in a timely manner and that if someone is calling in an emergency a truck cannot leave the station until the firefighter answering the call is off the phone which results in delayed response.

It was noted that out of 24 volunteer firefighters it seems to be the same three or four that respond calls and a lot of the volunteers don’t live in Wellsville and perhaps there is an internal issue that needs to be looked at.

Thorn asked Yu if there were any grants that could cover the cost of the switch, and she noted there were.

Lombardozzi said he couldn’t see spending money when they have a system that was working and questioned if the switch to the county’s dispatch didn’t work out how much it would cost to switch back.

Wilson and Boley pushed for a decision saying something has to be done.

Mick, Smith, Thorn and Dash all voted against sending it on to council for consideration.

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com