Vernon Hills eyes combined dispatch

Vernon Hills police and the Countryside Fire Protection District have been given the OK to proceed with a joint dispatching center.

Vernon Hills trustees this week agreed combining the two services at the renovated police department headquarters would provide more efficiency in the long run.

"It also provides us with a platform to attract and accept additional partners in the region," Police Chief Mark Fleischhauer said during a discussion of the proposal.

Fleischhauer said all village departments were asked to find ways to save money. Three alternatives for call dispatching were considered.

Keeping things as they are was not regarded as a good option because more full-time employees would need to be hired to reach full staffing, he told trustees.

Outsourcing also was dropped as a possibility because the cost would not include answering nonemergency calls or record checks, and public access to the Vernon Hills police headquarters would be closed on nights and weekends.

The third possibility was combining with the Countryside fire district, whose jurisdiction includes the village, in a regional center.

"There are some significant advantages to this," Fleischhauer said. Those include keeping the police station open 24 hours, and having adequate dispatch support and backup. Because fire dispatchers would move to the police station, no additional personnel would need to be hired, he added.

"There's no remodeling expense. It's just a matter of ironing out how we merge these two employee groups," he said.

Fire Chief Jeff Steingart said dispatch equipment would have to be moved from Station 1 on Midlothian Road to the police station.

In 2006, Countryside expanded its dispatch center at its headquarters in Vernon Hills and later moved it to the new Midlothian station.

Though its geographic boundaries extend well beyond Vernon Hills, about 80 percent of all fire or ambulance related calls received by Countryside are within the village.

Fire and ambulance calls made to 911 now are received by Vernon Hills police dispatchers and forwarded to Countryside. In the new set up, that would occur automatically through the computer aided dispatch system.

Next, the departments will develop an intergovernmental agreement that would require the approval of both governing boards.