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Paducah City Commission Sticks With Interlocal 911 Service

Hopkins County Central Dispatch

Paducah’s mayor introduced a resolution to the city commission last night to retain the Paducah/McCracken County 911 emergency communications center.  

The commissioners considered contracting with Kentucky State Police to provide dispatching services from KSP post 1, but the KSP proposal left commissioners and emergency responders with too many uncertainties.

“A presentation was made to the city commission by police chief Barnhill and fire chief Kyle in which concerns were expressed for the incompleteness of the cost projections of the KSP cost proposal,” Mayor Gayle Kaler said.

The Kentucky State Police presented a plan for E911 services to the Paducah City Commission and the McCracken County Fiscal Court last month. Consolidating Paducah-McCracken County’s E911 service at KSP Post 1 would have doubled the post’s call volume and required the construction of a new building there, which could take up to 2 years.

An annual service agreement with KSP would have cost Paducah-McCracken $700-thousand annually, with a total annual cost estimated at $1.3 million. The area’s current dispatch center has a $1.6 million dollar budget and 18 dispatchers.

Kaler said an agreement with the county to operate an emergency communications center began in 1991.  

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