W.Va. county 911 seeking fee increase

By Rusty Marks
Charleston Gazette

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — For the second time in two years, representatives of the Kanawha County Metro 911 system say they need to raise 911 fees for county residents.

County phone customers now pay $3.34 a month on their phone bills to support the 911 system, while business customers pay $5.34 a month, said Metro 911 Director Carolyn Charnock.

Cellular phone customers also pay a little extra each month to support the 911 system, but that money is spread statewide, and Charnock said about half of the money collected from Kanawha County cell phone users goes to support 911 centers in other parts of the state.

Metro 911 officials want to raise the county 911 fee by 66 cents a month for residents, to $4, and by $1.06 for business owners, to $6.40 a month. Charnock expects to talk about the proposed fee increase at a regular meeting of the Kanawha County Commission on Thursday.

County officials last raised the fee in 2008, but County Commission President Kent Carper said that was the first time the fee had been raised since the 1990s.

Charnock said the fee increase is needed because Metro 911 keeps adding services and is taking more and more emergency calls. In 1998, records show, Metro 911 took about 350,000 calls. In fiscal year 2008-09, Metro handled about 500,000 calls, and in 2009-10 dispatchers took 525,000 calls.

Charnock expects to go to bid on a new computer system early next year to handle the increased calls and add new technology to make it easier to find people in emergencies.

“The simplest explanation [of the fee increase], is that, to get a state-of-the-art computer system, we do need to pay for it,” she said.

Charnock said Metro is paying more for employee retirement and insurance than in the past. Revenue has also been dropping as more and more customers do away with their wire-based landline telephones.

“Ten years ago, everybody had landlines,” she said. At the same time, the increase in new cell phone customers is leveling off.

Many West Virginians already have cell phones, Charnock said. She said cell phone companies are starting to sell existing customers expanded services, rather than hooking up new cell phone customers.

“If everybody has wireless phones, that maxes out the money we can get from cell phone fees,” she said.

Also Thursday, county officials want to talk about adding technology to allow Metro 911 to receive text messages from the public. Charnock said 911 officials want to make sure the new computer system has the capability to take texts.

“We want to be the first county in the state to be able to do it,” she said.

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