The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Decision about restructuring to come in January
By Katherine Nettles
Whether it means restructuring the current model or moving on to a different service provider altogether, there may be changes afoot with how dispatch communication is handled for local law enforcement, fire protection and emergency medical services in the North Valley. Officials have been exploring their options in recent weeks.
Gunnison Communications, managed by the Gunnison Police Department, provides dispatch services for all agencies in the valley, and all the entities that use it pay in a proportionate share.
A few of those departments using the dispatch service throughout Gunnison County stated off the record to the Crested Butte News that the service could be improved.
Gunnison County manager Matthew Birnie and Gunnison County sheriff John Gallowich first spoke of the problem at a county budget meeting on October 29, when they informed the county commissioners that some departments were considering a different dispatch service—Western Colorado Regional Dispatch Center (WestCO Emergency Communications).
WestCO is based in Montrose and provides dispatch for various organizations in Montrose, Ouray, Telluride, Ridgway, Olathe and the National Park Services of the Black Canyon.
“This communication thing throws a monkey wrench into the works,” said Gallowich. “There’s some talk about the north end being dissatisfied.”
Birnie added that the issue was related to concerns about governance and keeping current with technology, and that the north end accounts for about 35 percent to 40 percent of that dispatch budget.
A meeting took place two days later with the Strategic Communications Planning Group (StratComm), a subcommittee of the Gunnison Valley Communications Board (GVCB), to discuss possible restructuring of the board of communications from an advisory board to one of governance.
Representatives attended from the city of Gunnison, the Gunnison Police Department, Gunnison Regional Communications, the Department of Parks & Wildlife, the Gunnison Fire Department, the Gunnison Sheriff’s Office, the Gunnison Office of Emergency Management, the Mt. Crested Butte Police Department, Gunnison Valley Health EMS, the National Parks Service, Hinsdale County, Gunnison County, the town of Mt. Crested Butte, the Crested Butte Fire Protection District, the Crested Butte Marshal’s Office and the Hinsdale Sheriff’s Office.
The meeting was prompted as a response to the recent problems. According to a press release from Scott Morrill with Gunnison County Emergency Management on November 1, members of the current advisory board expressed interest in having a voting say rather than an advisory say for addressing county emergency communications needs related to technology, system upgrades and funding.
“This was a preliminary meeting including all stakeholders to review options,” according to the press release.
Since this would move the board structure from one of advisory to governance, the group reviewed the model used by WestCO as a possible framework. Tad Rowan, Montrose Fire Department chief, presented the WestCO model and structure.
Birnie said the meeting was focused only on the governance issues and the North Valley entities were engaged in that discussion.
“There was no conversation about exploring other options other than information from the Montrose fire chief about the history of a split dispatch in Montrose County, the problems it created, and how they all came back together under a new governance structure,” Birnie said.
Scott Morrill’s press release statement was that after gaining an understanding of the model, the stakeholder group made changes to better fit local community needs. The edited model will be reviewed by independent counsel and returned to the Gunnison Valley Communications Board for final review by January 1, 2020. “Any proposed changes to the organizational structure of the GVCB will be reviewed and authorized by applicable agency elected officials,” said Morrill.
Mt. Crested Butte Police chief Nathan Stepanek and Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick said in a joint message, “At this point we really have nothing to talk about.” Fitzpatrick added, “I am optimistic that all will be worked through for the good of our county.”
