By Tricia Pursell
The Daily Item
MIDDLEBURG, Pa. — Often one of the last companies to be called on in an emergency occurring only a mile or two down the road from their station, members of the Richfield Fire Company approached the Snyder County commissioners on Tuesday to express their frustration with what they believe to be inefficient dispatch practices at the county 911 center.
“From an emergency services standpoint, to protect citizens, the closest piece of apparatus should be dispatched first, and that’s not happening” said Dale Maneval, Richfield fire chief. “I have a major problem with that. It’s uncalled for.”
Richfield sits just within the Juniata County line, bordering West Perry Township in Snyder County. When an emergency call is made in that township, the call is transferred to Snyder County Communications, which then dispatches companies to the scene.
At a recent fire in the township, the Middleburg and Mount Pleasant Mills fire companies were dispatched first to the scene from approximately 12 and 6 miles away, respectively, as opposed to 1 1/2 miles from Richfield, which wasn’t called until four minutes later.
“We’re not talking seconds here, we’re talking minutes,” Maneval said. “That’s unacceptable. There’s got to be a better way to do this.”
“We’re sitting with more than one person in that communications center (Snyder County),” he added. “You can’t tell me that the proper procedure can’t take place.”
According to Chad Aucker, Snyder County 911 coordinator, the center’s dispatchers contact neighboring counties for mutual aid, and response time depends on multiple factors.
When someone calls 911, he said, the call doesn’t come directly to the county 911 center. It is first routed through Scranton and Bloomsburg. Calls for Juniata County first go through Chambersburg and Carlisle.
Also, though the majority of West Perry Township is in Richfield’s coverage area, the two counties operate through separate phone companies: Juniata with Embarq, and Snyder County with Verizon. The counties also have different area codes.
Numbers could be re-routed, Aucker said, but it would be an extensive and expensive process. The changeover would include service charges to the 911 center because of the interim mix between the two telephone companies.
As of now, three to four minutes for an emergency call is not uncommon, Aucker said, as information must be verified by the caller in case the call is dropped.
“We take the call as best we can,” he said.
State guidelines ask that a dispatch is out within 90 seconds of an emergency call, said Allen Weaver, director of Juniata County 911 Services.
“It varies with the type of call and how much information there is,” he said. “We have to verify that we have the proper response and proper location.”
Their reports system shows a three-minute average for their calls, but that is after the dispatch is finished, he said.
For large incidents with multiple companies, there often is a time delay for tones and voice announcements as well, he said.
Weaver said his office will be meeting with Snyder County officials soon to find a solution to the concerns brought up by the Richfield Fire Company.
“There are challenges, but I don’t foresee it being an issue,” Weaver said. “It can be resolved by reviewing transfer policies.”
The Snyder County commissioners and 911 officials said they always are working to improve efficiency. They are reviewing the tapes from specific calls that caused concern and promised to look for options immediately.
“We’ve just got to cut this time factor down,” Maneval said. “That’s all this amounts to.”
Copyright 2009