Sometime before the end of the year, if all goes according to plan, all fire and emergency calls in southern Summit County will be dispatched from the Green Fire Department.
The idea is to cut out the duplicative costs of running multiple dispatch centers and to call for mutual aid more efficiently.
Coventry Fire Chief David Calderone, who developed the plan for South Summit Dispatch with his brother, Green Fire Chief Robert Calderone, said county and regional dispatching is becoming more common across the country.
``From every aspect, this is going to run better,'' David Calderone said.
The chief, who started his fire career in Green, said when he left for Coventry, he had the notion of creating a central dispatch. His plan got under way in 1992 when Coventry took over dispatching for Lakemore and Springfield.
Green currently dispatches for Uniontown in Stark County.
Now the Calderone brothers are working to persuade surrounding communities -- Lakemore, Springfield, Franklin and Uniontown -- to stick with or join the South Summit collaboration. Fire chiefs from all the communities would be involved in administering the dispatch center.
The new dispatching system should be running with at least Green and Coventry on board within the next few months. Coventry will keep its dispatch center as a backup.
Robert Calderone said Green's dispatching costs are about $450,000 a year. That fixed cost will stay the same, but participating departments will pay a per-call cost to Green.
In the first year, Green will pay 65 percent of the dispatching costs and receive $22.12 per call from the other departments. By the fourth year, Green would be paying 30.5 percent of the costs and receive $48.03 per call.
The volume of calls coming into Green is expected to increase from 3,500 calls a year to 10,200 if all the communities join.
Currently, Green has eight full-time and three part-time dispatchers. The new system will add one full-time and two part-time dispatchers from Coventry.
Karen Gregorcic, the project's dispatch manager, will be paid by Coventry and work in Green to manage day-to-day operations.
David Calderone said when Coventry started dispatching for Lakemore and Springfield, there were concerns that Coventry was taking over the other departments.
But those concerns have dissipated, he said, and the departments now save about $100,000 a year in dispatching costs.
``It just makes sense,'' Green Mayor Dan Croghan said. ``Why should all communities spend money to provide the same service? It's terribly duplicative and not an efficient use of taxpayer dollars.''
