EDITORIAL: 911 Consolidation and the Hidden Agenda

Jun. 12, 2012 - By Ron Scheiderer - 1 Comments

Again, just last Sunday Sheriff Tim Bailey pushed forward with his plan to raise county sales tax on every man, woman, and child when spending money in Marion County.

Bailey has been relentless in his efforts to raise our sales tax. Just last year he spearheaded a campaign almost single handed to raise your sales tax by one-half percent. Fortunately a few citizens fed up with too much taxes were able to get the issue on the ballot and voters turned in down in a pristine clear response, NO NEW SALES TAX.

Bailey ignored the voters last year and ever since the voters said NO he has continued to influence the Commissioners to put a new tax levy on the ballot again. As always the Commissioners give in to him as they also share a hidden motive with Tim Bailey.

What hidden agenda am I talking about? The fact is the there is not need for a sales tax levy at all to consolidate the three 911 Centers into just one. Think of it this way. Right now we have 3 separate 911 dispatch centers, one is with the city police, one with Marion Township Fire and the third one is with the Sheriff. They all currently pay to fund these three centers.

Now think of it this way, if they really wanted to merge the three, all they would have to do is JUST DO IT NOW. They do not need anymore money because they already have the money in their current budgets to pay for all three operations. All they have to do is to use their current money and merge everyone together and then hopefully SAVE MONEY. The purpose of mergers is to cut cost by eliminating duplication.

What will they do with the money saved and what other issues are surfacing in the never-ending struggle from dispatch service consolidation in Marion County? Find out in the video below:

Comments

Kenneth D. Smith said on Jun. 13, 2012

I think that Ron and TV 22 is doing a good job of staying on top of this child-like battle for control of the consolidation of 9-1-1 services, however, I still am very upset with Ron's support of Chief Clint Canterbury. 1st, lets look at the proposed location of the new 9-1-1 center. State Route 309 and Pole Lane Road. Close to the center of the county, yes. Also, how tall an antenna and tower will be allowed. Don't forget the Airport. Don Bender and Bender Communications is a good distance further away, and was limited in tower height. Add to this, most of the police-sheriff-fire-EMS radio's are lower power than we (1981-1996 with 1st Consolidate) used in the past. Has anyone had any testing done as to radipo transmission conditions? Have we asked the FAA how tall a tower we can construct? Next, quite harping on the fact the Marion City, the heriff, and Marion Township have dispatch centers. They have always been seperate (MTFD split from MCSO 20 years ago because of volumn of calls). Money well spent would be to have a seperate entity control a call center. Give it to Burdick (Ha Ha). Seriously, it is a good idea to have at least two locations for dispatch. Remember, storms can cause damage. Third, let's bring up the recent 1st Consolidated situation and Chyief Canterbury. I still say, send the man packing. He may be a good Fire Chief, but neither Caledonia, nor Marion County needs a man like him. As spmeone that V O L U N T E E R E D for 15 years, as a firefighter and also EMT through Advanced EMT to Paramedic,I am appaled at what 1st Consolidated has become. Less than 1 week before retired Chief Jesse G. Mowry died, he was at my house. The man was almost in tears about what 1st Consolidated has become. Now money is so short they need to look into selling equipment? Why in the hell did 1st Consolidate spend upwards of $70,000.00 on the building at 309 and Pole Lane Road?? Rather that keep pushing for fire departments to merge, maybe they should go door-to-door and request new volunteers. 1st Consolidated does NOT need a paid department! When we were volunteer, we were able to get plenty of trucks out to calls. Daytime calls were tight, but no worse than it is today with paid members. This merger BULLSHIT is all about money, and I will go on record of saying Mr. Ron knows this. I praise you for watching over the 9-1-1 merger, however, shame on you for supporting Clint Canterbury, Mike Fogel, or anyone that wants fire department mergers. If any were to merge, the City and Marion Township would be the only logical merger. NO ONE ELSE. Wake-up Ron. Citizens are not happy with it.