Proposal To Move Adamsville Dispatching to McNairy County
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Officials say the middle man is getting in the way of emergency responders ability to react to emergencies in Adamsville. The city is considering a proposal to transfer all dispatch calls to the McNairy County 911 system. “When we answer Adamsville Police Department calls, the caller tells us what the problem is then we transfer; once we transfer to Adamsville Police Department they have to tell that dispatcher the problem, so they have to repeat it twice, said McNairy County 911 Director, Dana Swim. Swim wrote the proposal. She believes it will eliminate the problems they have been having by dispatching calls directly. “It’s difficult to us as dispatchers not to be able to send them help immediately. Instead, we transfer and we have to listen, tell there story again,” said Swim. According to Swim, it takes about one minute for a caller to be transferred from the McNairy 911 dispatch to a Adamsville dispatcher. City Administrator Steve Simon said the transfer will also save the city nearly $50,000. The complete conversion will cost about $21,000. Simon said the City of Adamsville will lose some of its personality without its own dispatchers in the town. “We’ll figure out how to do those welfare checks with other staff members versus dispatch. That individual that calls in or we call them…we’ll figure out how to do those still make contacts,” said Simon. City leaders are expected to vote on the proposal in the next week. If approved, McNairy County will begin handling dispatch calls in July.
