A public hearing was held by the Ohio Auditor of State at the Marietta Armory to present the findings of the Washington County 911 Dispatch Feasibility Study on Tuesday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

MARIETTA — The Ohio Auditor of State conducted a public hearing for the 911 dispatch feasibility study at the Marietta Armory on Tuesday.

The presentation revealed the results of the study which was released on June 3.

Washington County cities Belpre and Marietta asked the Ohio Auditor of State to review the 911 operations and research the potential to consolidate their emergency dispatch services.

Upon review, the auditor gathered the data which was presented in its entirety for the public during the hearing Tuesday evening. The purpose of the hearing was to invite the public to speak about their concerns on emergency service consolidation.

“As far as the purpose of the audit, we were really looking to determine if a consolidation of dispatch services between these three entities was possible,” said Senior Performance Project Manager Amanda Curran.

Senior Performance Project Manager Amanda Curran presented the feasibility study findings at the Marietta Armory on Tuesday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

The three entities referred to PSAPs (public safety answering points) in Washington County are located in Belpre, Marietta and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

“There are key factors that we looked at to determine this, the first being call volume, the actual location of the dispatch service and its technology and equipment and the PSAPs,” said Curran. “So after doing the analysis, we determined that it is feasible to consolidate the dispatch operations of the Washington County area and Belpre.”

Curran said the state auditor has over 30 years of experience and has conducted about 500 audit studies on anything from school districts to state agencies during that time.

Based on the gathered data, the audit study revealed two main scenarios that would be most efficient for emergency service consolidation.

“In both of these scenarios, Washington County would host the PSAP and Belpre would contract with the county for services,” said Curran.

The first scenario would be operations from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and scenario two would be virtual consolidation with a single PSAP operated from two physical locations.

Based on the call volume and staffing needs, the data revealed that consolidation could potentially decrease the amount of employees from 19 to 10 and save up to $700,000.

The audit calculated that in scenario one, the consolidation would increase call time from 4.2 minutes to 5.9 minutes while scenario two would be from 4.2 minutes to 8.4 minutes.

According to the audit data, scenario one would save about $45,000 in equipment and scenario two would save about $18,000 annually. Expenses without consolidation are currently at $1.7 million each year and the consolidation would put savings between $697,000 and $724,000, respectively.

“The degree in which these savings can be realized is going to be impacted by staffing decisions, operations, and all three parties subject to contract negotiations,” said Curran. “If the decision is made to consolidate, we will continue to monitor those changes using the call volume and some of the standards that are out there to determine the appropriate staffing level.”

Only one member of the public approached with concerns which were clarified by Performance Project Manager Scott Smith during the public hearing portion of the presentation. The concerns focused on how consolidation would impact the effectiveness of the dispatcher and Smith responded.

“We looked at the entire year’s worth of calls and the entire length of the call,” said Smith. “So everything was based on their ability to take another call.”

Smith recommended creating an advisory board and any final decisions would be determined by the commissioners. With no other public comments, the meeting ended an hour and a half early.

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com.