By Rindi White
Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)
Copyright 2006 Anchorage Daily News
WASILLA, Alaska — An unexpected cut to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s Emergency 9-1-1 budget recently sent emergency response managers back to the table for another look at their spending plan.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly increased by a dime the 75-cent surcharge paid by everyone who has a telephone or cellular phone bill sent to a Mat-Su address. Emergency 9-1-1 officials had requested and budgeted for a 25-cent increase.
That means instead of having $860,000 available for this fiscal year, emergency officials have $692,000, or $168,000 less than budgeted.
Last week, members of the Emergency 9-1-1 board from Wasilla, Palmer, Alaska State Troopers and the Mat-Su Borough axed $84,000 and emptied a reserve fund to reach the new budget goal. That reserve fund, Mat-Su Department of Emergency Services director Dennis Brodigan said, is meant to pay for future technical upgrades.
The fund, managed by the borough, pays for operating two dispatch centers in Wasilla and Palmer, including salaries and equipment needs.
Brodigan said Wasilla, Palmer and the borough will receive less in reimbursements for dispatcher and call-taker salaries because of the cutbacks. Also cut were continuing training courses for call-takers and an advertising campaign targeting residents who don’t have recognized addresses, he said.
“We readjusted,” Brodigan said.
Emergency 9-1-1 board members also agreed to spend more in the future to reimburse cities and the borough for dispatcher and call-taker salaries, Wasilla Police Chief Don Savage said.
“It’s a user-fee approach,” Savage said. “MatCom is handling about 50 percent of the 9-1-1 calls, but we’re still not receiving 50 percent of the revenue.”
Brodigan said after a 9-1-1 call is answered in Palmer, call-takers route the caller to the right dispatch center.
Palmer’s dispatch center takes calls for Palmer Police, Palmer Fire Department, Mat-Su Borough Emergency Services, fire, ambulance and rescue services, Houston Fire Department and after-hours Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation calls. Wasilla’s dispatch center handles calls for Alaska State Troopers, Wasilla Police Department and Houston Police Department. The incoming calls are split pretty evenly between the two departments, Brodigan said.