A dispatcher transcribes a phone call during her shift at the Lewis County 911 Communications Center in 2012.
Amid ongoing discussions about the future of 911 services in Lewis County, first responders are funding a study to look at the future of the county’s communications infrastructure — which is expected to require expensive maintenance and upgrades.
County commissioners Monday approved an agreement with Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers for $89,000 to “provide a communications infrastructure planning document focused on fire and law enforcement services.”
The study — which is expected to take six months to complete — comes as the county begins looking at entering a regional partnership with Thurston County 911 Communications, or TCOMM, at the urging of its local agencies. In addition to surveying infrastructure, said Public Works director Josh Metcalf, the study will look at the pros and cons of regionalizing 911 service or keeping it in the Lewis County fold.
“It will be looking at our system now and things like tower site locations, looking at keeping it Lewis County-operated or regionalizing it,” Metcalf said. “It will come out with some recommendations for the county and give us some direction to move forward.”
The infrastructure challenges facing the county are significant, as the vast, mountainous terrain of the region makes it a difficult undertaking to connect first responders in every area. Steve Mansfield, the county’s emergency management director, has said it could cost $4 million to complete the necessary communications maintenance and upgrades.
“Lewis County’s got some geographical challenges,” Metcalf said. “You’ve got a large valley that goes from here to the east side of the county, up Highway 12, and it creates some communication challenges. Part of it will look at potential infrastructure improvements for the system we have now. That might be equipment, that might be changes in the operations. Some of the equipment that’s outdated, we’ll be looking at opportunities for updating.”
County leaders met Friday with area mayors to discuss 911 regionalization, some of whom criticized the county for not moving faster to start the process of moving under the Thurston County umbrella. All of the local police departments and fire districts within Lewis County partner with the county’s 911 center for service, a relationship that has been plagued in the past by accusations of poor management and communication.
The study is being funded through the county by designated funds contributed by the user committee that uses its 911 services. County manager Erik Martin said the study will be a helpful resource to get the county and its partner agencies — many of whom have been antsy to see more movement — asking the same questions and working from the same set of facts.
“It sort of grounds everything when you do an independent study,” he said. “I’m excited to see what the result is and excited to see what they believe is the best course of action for us on the infrastructure side. … Framing the problem is the big first step.”
County commissioners will be joining a meeting of area fire commissioners on May 20 to talk about regionalization, and the study will likely also be a part of that discussion.
“We have a lot of theories out there,” said county commissioner Edna Fund. “Getting the study done will help us know what the facts are. If there’s other questions, we can move from there. … If we’re looking to get grants and future funding, we need to be all on the same page and working together. This is one of the major steps we need to take.”
In addition to looking at the infrastructure needs, Hatfield & Dawson will put together a plan to help the county meet them within its budget realities.
“They’ll be doing visits to tower site locations, meetings with the individual stakeholder groups and part of it will come out with a cost analysis, so the count has an idea of what the cost of improvements will be,” Metcalf said. “There will also be a phasing plan to help us figure out how we can budget for incremental changes as we go. It will be a costly upgrade to do the whole thing, so we’ll look at ways to do it in bits and pieces as we can get funding.”
