North valley agrees to extension with Gunnison dispatch

Hopefully more changes in store over next year

By Mark Reaman

In an effort to not leave their compatriots in the south end of the valley hanging, the north valley emergency services agencies plan to stay with the Gunnison Regional Communications dispatch services for at least another year.

The north valley groups had become frustrated with the dispatch service run by the city of Gunnison and reached out to Western Colorado Emergency Communications (WestCO) of Montrose to provide the service. They said the service had better technology and would be much less expensive.

Crested Butte chief marshal Mike Reily told the Town Council at its March 2 meeting that while north valley agencies had serious questions about staying with Gunnison dispatch, the south valley group was making changes to appease their concerns.

“Changes have started to occur,” Reily said. “The user agencies are getting a vote and a board is being formed to run the dispatch instead of it going through the city of Gunnison. The head of the agency has said she is amenable to many of the suggested changes we want. The money issue is still there but losing the revenue we provide, that would be lost if we switched to Montrose this year, would really hurt the south end of the valley. We are sensitive to that so we want to now postpone any decision to March of 2021 instead of 2020.”

While the dispatch contracts expire at the end of the year, agency boards need several months to gear up for adding agencies, so decisions need to be made by March.

Reily said signing a one-year extension gives the north valley agencies some control into the dispatch service that they didn’t have previously. “Extending it a little bit is good for the south end of the valley so we’ll be there at least another year,” he told the council. “While our options remain open, we support giving Gunnison dispatch time to improve their service and we recommend signing the Intergovernmental Agreement [IGA] with Gunnison Regional Communications Center.”

The council agreed to go with the current dispatch situation for the next year. As part of the same issue the council also adopted an increase from $1 to $2 in the emergency telephone fee. That increase has already been approved by the state Public Utilities Commission and will be applied to each telephone line.