An ambitious proposal to consolidate police, fire and medical emergency radio communications across Ramsey County is looking like it won't get on the air.
St. Paul, Maplewood, White Bear Lake and Ramsey County have been studying the matter for more than a year, part of a statewide conversion to 800-megahertz radio communications a new, digital broadcast system that's more efficient and adaptable than the UHF and VHF systems police and fire departments now use.
The new radio standard, combined with a new police headquarters in St. Paul and a new patrol station for the Ramsey County sheriff, looked like an opportunity to reconfigure the "back office" operations of such public safety communications as answering 911 calls and dispatching paramedics.
One plan called for the four existing 911 answering points across the county Ramsey County's is in Shoreview to be merged into one, saving money by pooling staff and resources. Although there aren't any cost comparisons, because each system runs differently, the total outlay by 2014 could be as much as one-fifth cheaper with consolidation, according to one consultant. The County Board backed that option at a meeting Tuesday.
But other officials across the county have been expressing skepticism about the plan.
"No way," Maplewood Mayor Bob Cardinal said last week, after attending a meeting for local officials that pegged the final cost for the project at more than $42 million, up from $32 million just a year ago. He said the cost was simply too high and the benefit too meager.
County officials called that figure a worst-case scenario last week. Project manager Paul Kirkwold also noted that about $30 million in state, federal and county funds already have been earmarked for the project.
"And we're always on the lookout for more," Kirkwold said. He also noted Tuesday that separate communications centers will be even more expensive yet for Maplewood and White Bear Lake if they don't opt for consolidation.
But skepticism about the plan goes beyond just money.
Figures from a county-commissioned study and others provided by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher indicated that workloads in the dispatch centers in Maplewood, White Bear Lake, Shoreview and St. Paul vary widely.
St. Paul, for instance, handles about 6,200 calls per employee at its downtown communications center, more than twice the load in Maplewood or the sheriff's office. Suburban officials fear their employees would wind up doing work for St. Paul if those calls were spread throughout a central communications office.
White Bear Lake officials said there are less tangible reasons they were reluctant to hang up on their own call center, which operates round-the-clock at the police department.
During slow periods in the early morning, dispatchers also do non-call work, such as writing up lists of stolen cars and other data entry, he said.
Hesitation by the suburbs to centralize a communications center comes as no surprise in St. Paul, where city officials are losing hope of hosting a consolidated operation.
Deputy Mayor Denny Flaherty says the city has committed bonding money and federal grants to the effort and will spend $6 million to $7 million to build a call center of its own elsewhere, possibly big enough to accommodate the rest of Ramsey County eventually.
