Pulaski County is working to convince the Town of Winamac to continue paying for emergency dispatch services.
Pulaski County Attorney Kevin Tankersley told the county commissioners Tuesday the Winamac Town Council has decided to stop making its usual payment of around $32,000. “Basically, they felt like, ‘Why are we paying and no one else is paying into this 911 Fund?’ And basically, we’re going to write up something to explain to them why we think that is a reasonable request,” Tankersley said.
Winamac had been making the payment for several years, but town officials weren’t sure whether there was any formal contract. After months of consideration, town council members met with Tankersley and Sheriff Jeff Richwine to discuss the issue. But before they could gather more information, Tankersley says the council apparently made its decision. “It kind of happened very fast,” he said. “We went over for one meeting, and then that was at their next meeting when they said that they’re not paying it, when we said that we were going to gather data. The sheriff’s given me quite a bit of data. I’ve had a conversation with the town attorney, Mr. [Justin] Schramm, trying to lay out for him the justification.”
On top of that, Richwine says that Winamac’s claim that it’s the only community that pays for dispatch isn’t entirely true. “I will say, so Monterey gets their credit, Monterey does chip in,” he said. “They were paying $1,500 and they doubled this year and pay $3,000. The only thing we dispatch for Monterey is the fire department there. I think they were under 400 calls, if I remember right, so it’s pretty minimal, but Monterey does pay.”
On the other hand, Richwine says Winamac makes up a sizable portion of Pulaski County’s 911 calls.
