BENTONVILLE -- Benton County will not see any reduction in emergency services as a result of a state plan to consolidate 911 call answering centers, County Judge Barry Moehring said.
The county has four Public Safety Answering Points where 911 calls are answered. The answering points in Benton County are at police departments in Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs and Benton County Central Communications.
The Public Safety Act of 2019 requires counties with more than one answering point to consolidate and submit plans to merge 911 centers by Jan. 1.
The law initially allowed a maximum of 77 funded 911 centers, but that amount has since been adjusted to a maximum of 81 answering points -- one in each county, except for the three largest counties, Pulaski, Benton and Washington, which are each allotted three.
Moehring said Arkansas 911 recommended last year Benton County be reduced to two or three answering points and the county appealed that decision. Arkansas 911 later determined the county could have three.
The three state-funded answering points will be the county's dispatch center and the dispatch centers for the Rogers and Bentonville police departments, Moehring said.
Siloam Springs will continue to receive 911 calls, and Moehring said the county will assist in finding a funding mechanism for Siloam Springs to replace the state dollars.
Moehring said there will no changes to the county's 911 services.
Moehring believes the Siloam Springs dispatch center is the only one that serves that area of the county. The county needs the dispatch center there because of the population growth in the county, he said.
"It's in public safety's best interest to keep the dispatch center in Siloam Springs," he said.
Jay Cantrell, chief deputy of the Washington County's Sheriff's Office, said Washington County has four answering points: Central Emergency Medical Services, Washington County Sheriff's Office and the Fayetteville and Springdale police departments.
The state initially said it would fund only two answering points in Washington County. Local officials went to Little Rock to petition for more and the state agreed to fund three, Cantrell said.
The answering points in Fayetteville and Springdale will remain unchanged, Cantrell said.
The Sheriff's Office and Central Emergency Medical Services will consolidate their operations as soon as possible, Cantrell said. The Sheriff's Office dispatchers will have to be cross-trained and certified to handle the medical emergency calls, he said.
The Sheriff's Office is planning to reconfigure its dispatch area to accommodate the Central Emergency Medical Services dispatchers, Cantrell said.
He said the state requires a plan be approved by January and implemented by 2025.
Cantrell said the plan is to get the consolidation done in conjunction with the current upgrade of the emergency communications system in Washington County. The upgraded system is supposed to go live in March.
The Crawford County Quorum Court approved in March using $1.03 million from the county's American Rescue Plan funds to build an emergency communication center next to the Sheriff's Office and jail.
Joanie Best, the county's director of 911 communications, previously said all three call centers in the county's 911 system were consolidated into one facility at the Sheriff's Office to bring the system into compliance with the Public Safety Act of 2019. The other two centers were at the Van Buren and Alma police departments, Best said.
She said a new building would provide a replacement facility with improved separation from the public and jail, in addition to proper ventilation.
Sebastian County is considering building a consolidated 911 call center.