[4/08/03]Without comment, supervisors agreed Monday to kick in about $19,000 more to the next annual budget for Warren County’s 911 dispatch center.

“In an effort to work with the city and preserve enhanced 911 and consolidated dispatch we have, I make a motion that we change the ratio of city funding from 70 percent to 65 percent and county funding from 30 percent to 35 percent,” District 4 Supervisor Bill Lauderdale said in making his motion. “Hopefully, this will put an end to any other discussions.”

The consolidated dispatch system was created after a public vote in 1988. It was supposed to be funded with per-line surcharges on residential, business and cell phones, but annual supplements have been paid from general city and county funds each year.

For this year, center’s budget is $840,000 and the supplement is $381,000 with $114,300 of that coming from the county general fund, collected from taxpayers countywide. If 911’s budget remains the same, the county’s share of the supplement would increase to $144,350 and Vicksburg’s share, collected only from city residents, would drop by $19,050.

“This is basically an effort to help and reduce the anxieties of (911) staff,” Lauderdale said, adding it was also an attempt to cooperate with city officials.

“I appreciate it,” Mayor Laurence Leyens said when told of the county vote. “I am encouraged they offered to reduce the percentage,” he said, but added there is more work to be done before interlocal agreements are sealed at summer’s end before the new budget years start Oct. 1.

District 5 Supervisor Richard George, board president, pointed out the vote was an attempt to equalize the financing.

“This is merely an effort on behalf of the board of supervisors to be equitable,” George said. “Our interest is to be found doing the right thing.”

There was no comment from other supervisors, including District 3’s Charles Selmon who had made a motion last week to ask the local delegation to the Mississippi Legislature to adopt a local and private bill to allow raising the surcharges on residential phone bills to $2.50 and on commercial phones to $5. The surcharges are now $1 for residential and $2 for commercial and partially fund the cost of the 911 system.

Leyens had asked for the legislation as a means of creating a one service, one fee approach. A flat, countywide tax to provide the dispatch center supplement has also been suggested.

Selmon’s motion last week failed when no one seconded it.