WOOSTER — Elected officials in Ashland and Wayne counties laid the groundwork Tuesday for a future meeting about 911 dispatching services in both counties.
At a Wooster-Ashland Regional Council of Governments meeting Tuesday in the Wooster Safety Service Center, Ashland Mayor Matt Miller responded to a request from Wooster, Orrville and Wayne County leaders, who asked to meet with Ashland city and county leaders.
The purpose would be to discuss the feasibility of creating a new, larger combined dispatch center that would cover the areas now served by the Wooster-Ashland Regional Council of Governments, as well as the sheriffs’ offices from Ashland and Wayne counties.
Miller said he believes Ashland County commissioners president Denny Bittle and Sheriff E. Wayne Risner would be willing to have such a meeting, and he agreed to set up the meeting “very soon.” The meeting will include mayors of all three cities, both county sheriffs and representatives from each county’s board of commissioners.
After Ashland Police Chief Dave Marcelli asked about the nature and intent of the meeting, mayors of both Wooster and Orrville said they would be willing to have the meeting in a public session. rather than privately.
“That’s a new development, so I will relay that back to our president of county commissioners and our sheriff, and I have no reason to think they won’t be on board,” Miller responded.
The meeting request came after Wayne County, Wooster and Orrville leaders decided at another meeting last week to consider creating a new combined dispatch organization for their cities and county. They also agreed to invite the City of Ashland and Ashland County to be part of those talks.
Discussions have been ongoing in both counties about whether the cities should leave the Wooster-Ashland Regional Council of Governments and share dispatching services with their respective counties or whether they should remain in WARCOG, possibly bringing their respective counties into the combined dispatch arrangement.
Wooster Mayor Robert Breneman suggested abandoning the rhetoric of those talks and starting from scratch with a new approach.
“I think the terminologies were being thrown around, ‘You join us,’ versus, ‘No, why don’t you join us?'” he said. “Let’s go away completely from that and say, ‘Why don’t we all join together?’ If we have to start a new organization that’s brand new, we’ll call it whatever we want to call it.”
Breneman said he believes that for Wayne County and its municipalities, the three major issues of contention will be developing the structure of the governing body, choosing computer-assisted dispatching technology and the blending personnel.
If the service is high quality, he said, people in Wayne county are not overly concerned about the location of the center.
“I think that is one of the fundamental differences between the two counties,” Miller said in response. “That’s easy to say when it will be housed in Wayne County, when it will most likely be in your back yard. That’s not as easily accepted by the folks in Ashland County, whether you’re a county commissioner, a sheriff, or in many instances, a resident.”
Miller said the talks are still in a preliminary stage, and he cautioned Wayne County leaders not to expect Ashland County officials to be ready to sign up for a combined arrangement or even to talk details immediately.
“It’s important for me to make clear since our sheriff and county commissioners aren’t represented at this table today that they obviously have come to the conclusion they need to upgrade their equipment in the 911 dispatch at the sheriff’s department. Also, they have a firm commitment to maintaining a presence in Ashland County,” Miller said. “That being said, they are still willing to at least have a discussion with everyone around the table to hear more details about what an overall combined effort could look like and whether it could meet their desires in our county.”
Miller noted that the proposed meeting is timely because both Wayne and Ashland counties are considering significant expenditures for projects related to 911 dispatching services.
“That’s why we brought this up, because if we miss this window, we won’t have that opportunity for a good long time,” Orrville mayor Dave Handwerk said.
Though there were moments of tension in the meeting and all parties agreed a path forward may not be easy, Miller said he believes the willingness among public officials to meet and discuss the issues demonstrates a form of progress.
“This is progress for all of us to be sitting at the table once again, and in time I’m convinced everyone will make the best decision,” he said.
