County Must Consolidate Spring Hill Fire Rescue Dispatch

Editor's note: This letter was e-mailed to Hernando County commissioners on Tuesday and is reprinted here at the author's request.

Mr. Chairman, commissioners, my name is Harry Chamberlain and I am a Spring Hill resident. I am writing you today on an issue that involves a direct threat to the lives of Spring Hill residents and is within a majority vote of your body to resolve.

I am speaking of the dual dispatch system for Spring Hill Fire Rescue. To briefly explain for those who may not have experienced it, when a caller in Spring Hill dials 911, the call is promptly answered by Hernando County's 911 operators. If the call is for police, the call remains with Hernando County, if it is for fire or EMS service, the call must be transferred to Spring Hill dispatch center for the dispatch of the required vehicles. This transfer has already failed in the past on at least one occasion, which resulted in the loss of a life.

This dual dispatch does not have to be the norm for Spring Hill. In one of the first Spring Hill Fire Board meetings I attended, I raised the issue of why I had to talk with two 911 operators to get EMS service for my wife. I was told that this is the way it is in most municipalities. In my previous residences I did not find this to be the case, but I did some investigation and found that this is not the normal way of doing business. Almost all the cities have found that the fewer people who handle an emergency call the better.

Here in Spring Hill we have interjected a second set of people into the process. At the last fire board meeting I asked two questions of the chairman: Can Hernando County fully dispatch the emergency services of Spring Hill? And, if so, what are the benefits to Spring Hill residents of having a second dispatch center?

The chairman asked Interim Chief Rampino to answer my questions, the interim chief mumbled a yes to the first question, but failed to answer the second. By now you probably have been approached by the interim chief on the subject of fire station No. 5. He will have said you are putting books above lives by not giving the land they want adjacent to the library. In the fire service study station No. 5 was recommended, but on page 485 of the same study the consolidation of the dispatch services was called a critical issue to the safety of lives.

My humble thoughts are that Spring Hill Fire is budgeting about $600,000 for communications services. This $600,000 provides employment for 11 full- and part-time employees. Hernando County can provide the dispatch service for about $200,000, $10,000 as start-up costs. This is a direct savings to the Spring Hill taxpayers of almost $400,000 a year. Even if independence is voted, this savings can still be realized for the independent fire district.

It seems that the real issue for the fire board is if the county takes over the dispatch (which from a dollars-and-cents approach is a no-brainer) then what do we do with the 11 employees? The union has a strong voice on the board, so this becomes a quandary. In this time of extremely tight budgets, it is necessary to do the unpleasant and release employees who have no function within the organization.

The fire board is reluctant to do this for whatever reason - union influence, compassion or some other unknown motive. So it really comes down to instead of the county commissioners putting books above lives, the fire board is putting jobs above lives.

It is not a question of if a call is going to be dropped again; it is only a question of when. It is important to remember that there is only one 911 call that is important - yours.

Harry Chamberlain

Spring Hill