Dispatch explanation hits the road

County commissioners are working to place a measure on either the June or November ballots to pose what has become a polarizing question: should Troy Area Dispatch stay open?

The third of three meetings addressing the feasibility of transferring emergency calls in the Troy area to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Dispatch Center attracted a crowd of 25 people Wednesday near Bull Lake. The second meeting, held in the Yaak during a brutal blizzard, attracted 15-20 people. The first meeting at Troy Senior Citizens Center drew approximately 150 people.

County Commissioner Ron Downey thought the meetings did a lot of good.

“It straightened out a lot of information for people,” Downey said. “I really don’t care one way or the other if they keep it open. I pay somewhere between $80 and $90 on the property I own to dispatch. On the other hand it is $250,000 vs. $10,000. As a commissioner, I will do what the people want.”

Part of Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe’s presentation on the potential move includes a slide comparing the operating cost of Troy Area Dispatch to the estimated $10,000 his department would charge the Troy Police Department for dispatching services.

Gene Rogers, Troy Area Dispatch District chairman, hopes his service will stick around.

“Let’s get on with it and be done,” Rogers said. “I think Roby represented the people of the county well.”

A comment by County Commissioner Tony Berget during Wednesday’s meeting caught Rogers’ attention.

“He said he knew about the taxation problem in October,” Rogers said. “He slipped, in my opinion. I want to know why he didn’t give me a call then. I feel they’re using dispatch as a pawn.”

Berget said County Treasurer Nancy Trotter Higgins alerted him of Troy Area Dispatch District’s allotted 56.86 mills in October.

“That’s when we started down that path with our clerk and recorder,” Berget said. “Gene could have given us a call, too.”

In 2000, voters approved Troy Area Dispatch District to receive 20 mills. Previous county commissioners voted to let that number of mills float, or fluctuate based on changes in taxable property and inflation. The legality of that decision remains uncertain and did play some part in the near tripling of dispatch’s tax revenue. Combine that decision with a years-long accounting error in the Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder’s office, and Troy Area Dispatch District taxpayers have been overtaxed more than $1 million during the last decade.

Rogers said his service is willing to run on one mill next year in an effort to compensate the public.