Wednesday, May 12, 1999
County, Cheviot reach accord on dispatch bill
BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
An agreement has been reached that will clear up a debt Cheviot owes Hamilton County for dispatching police, fire and ambulance service.
The city has agreed to pay $20,503 on the $32,757 debt to resolve the matter.
The dispute dates to 1995, when the city wrote a letter asking the communications center to stop dispatching a police car on every fire or ambulance run.
Hamilton County charges $13.13 to each municipality for every emergency dispatch. When police and fire are dispatched to the same scene, the charge is $26.26.
The county responded to Cheviot's letter by saying it would consider stopping the dual dispatches, then never followed through, records show. That led to the city's withholding more than $12,000 in fees for dispatches from June 1995 through July 1998.
Bill Hinkle, director of the county's communication center, said his office helped create “confusion” on the issue, so the compromise was appropriate.
“(The agreement) is in the interest of putting this behind us,” Mr. Hinkle said. “It's just as much my fault. We informed Cheviot that we would review the contract and implied we would make some amendments.
“Then we let this thing sit for three years.”
Cheviot agreed to pay half of the $12,000 during those three years in dispute. It also agreed to pay in full its dispatch fees for the first five months of 1995 and the past nine months.
The agreement still needs approval by city council and the county commission.
Cheviot Mayor J. Michael Laumann said he still sees no need for the county to dispatch police on fire or ambulance runs.
The police station monitors the same radio as the city's other emergency services and the dual dispatches are a waste of city dollars, Mr. Laumann said.
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