panel OKs plan to spend $804,000 in coming budget year

[8/1/03]The E-911 Commission approved submitting a spending plan calling for more than $804,000 in spending and nearly $860,000 in the budget year starting Oct. 1.

Approval followed a lengthy closed session to allow commissioners to discuss salary matters with E-911 Director Allen Maxwell.

The budget staffs and pays the expenses of the city-county emergency dispatch center. It will now be presented to Vicksburg and Warren County for approval and funding of the city and county supplements.

The plan anticipates $242,688 from Vicksburg and $130,678 from Warren County 65-35 split of the supplement.

The largest source of income in the budget is $470,000 expected from fees included on telephone bills. The charges are $1 for each home phone line, $1 for each cell phone and $2 for each business line.

The greatest spending is $592,089 for salaries and benefits for 14 dispatchers, Maxwell and the address coordination officer; $204,476 in contract services; $6,100 in supplies and materials and $2,000 for capital outlay.

The largest line item in contract services is for telephone expenses at $132,500 and Maxwell said most of that expense was what BellSouth charges for access to its Caller ID and address databases that aid law enforcement, fire, ambulance and rescue responses.

Funding of the supplement has been contentious for most of the 14 years since voters authorized the fees and creation of the unified response system. The city tried and failed to enlist county help in asking the Mississippi Legislature to raise the residential fees up to $2.50 per line and the business fees to $5 per line so that no supplement would be required.

The city’s position, supported in an independent review, is that city taxpayers, who also pay county taxes, pay a disproportionate share of the costs. The county’s response has been that the imbalance is justified since most dispatches are to municipal locations.

Another matter taken up by the commission, composed of city and county appointees, was the request to name a new road off Dogwood Lake Drive. The developer of the area, Chad Barrett, has suggested five choices, four of which were rejected as being too similar to existing road names. The name Chadwick Place will be forwarded to the Warren County Board of Supervisors for approval.