The Village Board is considering whether to provide the Cary Fire Protection District with a "financial bridge" to prevent the district from switching its dispatch services to McHenry's new facility and creating a fractionalized dispatch situation for the village.
Village Administrator Chris Clark told the Committee of the Whole this week that the McHenry dispatch center called NERCOMM, which will be one of three in the county after state-mandated dispatch consolidation takes effect next year, offered the fire district an annual rate about $40,000 less than the offer from SEECOM.
Currently, both Cary's police and fire services are dispatched through Crystal Lake-based SEECOM. The village of Cary is an equity partner in SEECOM, and Clark told board members it could not move village police to another dispatch center until bonds are paid off in December 2019.
If the fire district jumped to McHenry's center, Clark said, all calls would be routed there and calls requiring police would require a transfer to SEECOM, which would lead to a short delay in response time and potential for "anomaly situations" where calls are not transferred properly.
Police Chief Patrick Finlon said he was concerned about calls being handled by more than one dispatch center and the complications that could create.