GENEVA-ON-THE-LAKE — The Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department has given the village notice that it will terminate their dispatching contract.
Sheriff William Johnson sent the village, and four other municipalities, a letter. Effectively, the Sheriff’s Department would more than double the cost of dispatching for villages that would opt back into its dispatching program.
“Due to revised budget appropriations, the sheriff’s department, regrettably, will no longer be able to provide dispatch services to your department under the current contract,” Johnson wrote.
The 60-day notice comes less than a year after Geneva-on-the-Lake, Andover, Jefferson, Orwell and Roaming Shores paid thousands of dollars to upgrade to the Multi-Agency Radio Communications System (MARCS) radio system to comply with the sheriff’s department’s standards.
Johnson said new terms for the same services include rate increases of from $20,000 per year to $50,000 per year.
“Effective midnight Sept. 30, the current contract will terminate,” Johnson wrote. “If you wish to have the sheriff’s department dispatch for your agency, please advise as soon as possible, and a new contract will be drawn up.”
Johnson said the new quarterly dispatching bill will be $12,500 per village.
“This is a deeply troublesome situation,” Mayor Dave Nelson said during the regular village council meeting Monday. “(Johnson) laid this on us a week ago, and now we are forced to look at other options.”
The village can’t afford a $30,000 increase in dispatching fees, Nelson said.
“It is just impossible,” he said.
Councilman Don “Woody” Woodward said he doesn’t appreciate the out-of-the-blue rate increase.
“I feel like we are caught in the middle of the sheriff’s problems with the (Ashtabula County) commissioners,” Woodward said. “I feel slighted by this action, and I’ll tell you we just can’t absorb this kind of immediate rate hike.”
Councilman Mike Baker said Johnson did the villages a favor by mandating the radio system upgrade. The village paid $23,000 to comply with the MARCS radio system.
“The MARCS radio system opens up a lot of doors. We can dispatch from almost anywhere now that we are upgraded,” he said. “Yeah, it feels like a slap in the face that we complied with the sheriff and his upgrades, only to be hit with this increase now, but at least now we have the option to take our business elsewhere.”
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