Gurnee dispatch center adding towns, revenue

Now that it also provides service to Beach Park and Zion, the dispatch center at the Gurnee police station has never before been as busy.

TVs are mounted on most every wall, displaying real-time maps of emergency vehicle locations. Each dispatcher has a huge workstation featuring at least seven computer monitors. The whole room looks like it belongs more at NASA or the CIA than a suburban police station.

Last week, Gurnee received a $554,167 state grant to reimburse most of what it cost the village to expand and upgrade the dispatch center to take two towns as clients.

Phil Brunell, the communication supervisor for Gurnee police, said some of that money funded a sixth workstation this summer.

"We had to stay operational during the renovation, so you'd hear the noise of construction going on during emergency calls," Brunell said.

He credits Information Services Director Chris Velkover for keeping the center up and running through the project.

"He is the backbone of the think tank," Brunell said. "He's the smartest guy I know."

The dispatch center began providing service to Beach Park, which has a population of about 13,638, in late May. Zion, with a population about 24,413, came on board July 11.

For Brunell and the dispatchers, that meant they had only about 12 hours after adding Zion until the storms that caused historic flooding hit Gurnee.

"That day we had 164 police calls for service and 61 fire calls," Brunell said. "It was an anomaly."

Despite the auspicious start to the merger, Brunell said he thinks Beach Park and Zion residents are getting a higher level of service.

Dispatch center consolidation has been common in the suburbs since passage of a 2015 state law dictating that a 911 operation cannot serve fewer than 25,000 residents.

Under the terms of a five-year deal made in December 2016, Zion will pay Gurnee a prorated share of a first-year base fee of $875,000 for dispatching the city's fire and police calls. That fee will increase slightly each year.

Zion also must place roughly $160,000 it receives annually from taxpayers for emergency dispatching into a fund controlled by a new joint 911 board with Gurnee.