A plan to spend $1.2 million providing emergency dispatching services was approved Wednesday by the E-911 Commission.

The total was down $100,000 from the requested by Geoffrey Greetham, director of the city-county agency, but up $200,000 from the last spending plan that did not include major capital expenses.

Greetham, also interim director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, said he’d structure jobs to fit the total allowed.

&#8220We will split the salary of the administrative assistant between EMA (Warren County Emergency Management Agency) and 911 funds,” Greetham said later. &#8220Also, we proposed putting an IT (information technology) person in 911. But after discussions with the county administrator, we decided not to put him there and are looking at possible options.”

E-911 Commission Acting Secretary Tara Hessie is an hourly employee, working part time as a dispatcher and administrative assistant, Greetham said.

&#8220She has not been authorized to work just as an administrative assistant,” he said. &#8220Right now, she’s just helping out until we get her authorized.”

Most of the budget, $631,757, will be spent on salaries for dispatchers who answer all 911 calls all day every day and for their managers. The balance goes to charges for database access, utilities, equipment and other operating overhead.

Voters authorized creation of a call center in 1989 and to pay for it through monthly surcharges on their phone bills, now including cells. The total raised has never been enough to cover expenses, however, and a supplement from general funds is required. For the coming year, the 65-35 split agreed to by city and county officials will be $410,115 from the City of Vicksburg and $221,115 from Warren County.

Greetham had submitted a $1,364,030 budget proposal July 26, but commissioners recessed that meeting to have a &#8220working discussion” a week later.

The budget is down $600,000 from this year, a year in which the outlay was raised by $800,000 to purchase new equipment.

Along with a move from the basement of the courthouse to the former Southern Printing Building at Clay and First North streets, new computers and consoles are being purchased.

The spending plan, which must be separately approved by city and county boards, shares costs for training and attending Mississippi Emergency Management Agency conferences projected at $68,026, with partial reimbursement from the state likely for training.

About $85,000 in capital outlay is requested, and about $57,600 of it will fund software geared to improve communication between the department’s computer system with that of MEMA.

No date for a move to the new building was set, but is expected in the first quarter of 2007. Architectural services to retrofit the building to draw the plans for an upgraded electrical system and accommodate new software were awarded last week.

Members of the management commission are set by agreement. They are the mayor, police chief, fire chief, sheriff, a supervisor, the county volunteer fire coordinator and the county emergency management director. The last slot is vacant because Greetham, who holds it, is an employee of the commission.