County puts Dispatch Center tax on August ballot

Nevada Daily Mail

The Vernon County Commission decided Tuesday to move forward in their plans to improve funding for the Western Missouri 911 Dispatch Center by certifying an item for the ballot of the August election.

If approved, a county sales tax of one-half percent would be put in place to fund the local dispatch center, which is currently supported by Vernon County, the city of Nevada and the Vernon County Ambulance District. However, despite that financial support, the center remains underfunded and understaffed.

"It's something that's needed," northern commissioner Neal Gerster said of the tax, which would save the county, city and VCAD money to be used elsewhere and also put the board of the dispatch center into the hands of elected residents instead of city and county leaders.

The commissioners discussed the language of the ballot with police, fire, VCAD and sheriff's office representatives and decided they would use the language of the state statute, with the slight change of adding law enforcement to the list of services the dispatch center assists.

"Sometimes simple is best," presiding commissioner Joe Hardin said of their decision to use the straight-forward ballot language.

Already, Hardin said the commission has had residents approach them with questions about the potential tax and how it would improve the dispatch center.

"We're already being faced with a little opposition," Hardin said. "It's going to be tough."

City Manager J.D. Kehrman said they could expect residents to oppose a new tax initially, but in upcoming months they will try to reach out to the community to educate them in what the tax is for and how the county will benefit from it.

Southern commissioner Everett Wolfe said he has talked with residents who did not know how the dispatch center works, or that their calls to 911 go through that center.

"Half the people in Vernon County don't know how it works," Wolfe said.

On June 2, at 10 am, they will meet once again to decide how they will proceed in educating the public, putting together fact sheets explaining the tax and how it will help the community and better the county's emergency services. Once drafts of that information are completed, the VCAD, police department, fire department and city and county leaders will cooperate in educating the public.

"That should be our starting point so we're all on the same page," Kehrman said of the upcoming meeting.

The ballot item costs more than $20,000, but the VCAD, Kehrman and county commissioners each said their entities had decided they would pay for one third of that cost.