Dispatchers now Floyd County employees, still at Charles City City Hall for now

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County got six new employees including a new department head as of Jan. 1 as the radio dispatch center began its transition from Charles City to the county.

The dispatchers had been employees of the city, working out of offices at City Hall. They will remain working there for at least several more months as a new dispatch office is being created within the new county law enforcement center (LEC) being built next to the courthouse.

The budget impact of the shift on both the city and the county will be minimal, however, as the county had already been reimbursing the city for the costs of the dispatch department, including the dispatchers’ pay and benefits.

Moving from the role of dispatch supervisor to dispatch administrator will be John Gohr, who accepted the county’s official job offer for the new position last week. One of his first official acts in his new role was to offer jobs with the county to the other five dispatchers.

All accepted, as expected, Gohr said.

“Yup, I hired them and they are actually county employees as of the first of the year,” he said.

Although Gohr was in a supervisory role before, Police Chief Hugh Anderson was the department’s administrator. Gohr will have more responsibilities in his new position, including budgeting for the department as well as hiring employees when needed. He will report directly to the Board of Supervisors.

There’s still a lot of planning that needs to be done and a lot of decisions that need to be made before the actual physical relocation can take place, he said.

Fortunately, he said, most of the radio equipment and computers are up to date and will be able to continue being used.

The plan is to continue using the radio broadcast system and tower located at City Hall, linked to the new dispatch center in the LEC. There is already a fiber line between City Hall and the courthouse, and that will be backed up with a microwave connection that can be used if something interferes with the fiber connection, Gohr said.

The dispatch center currently has two radios that the dispatchers use, so one of those can remain in use at City Hall while the other one is moved to the new dispatch center and tested to make sure it is working correctly before the other one is also brought over, so there will be no break in service.

Previous statements by county supervisors are that there’s no hurry on the dispatch move, and the new county jail and Sheriff’s Office in the LEC could be finished and in use before the dispatch center is moved.

“We’re not going to do it in the middle of winter,” Gohr said. “I’m kind of hoping early spring. That’s our goal. We don’t have a definite date set because there’s a lot of stuff I have to do with the state to move what they call the Iowa System that we have.”

Because that system involves secure information regarding law enforcement and other personnel information, the FBI and other federal departments are also involved in the move.

“We have to give the state a 90-day notice of the move and we have to have the plans in place, blueprints and all that. … Needless to say, that isn’t all available yet,” he said.

“They’ve got to be able to have their people come and move it.  We just don’t unhook and hook up over there. … Everything we do is through that system. They have very strict guidelines and we have to follow that to the letter,” he said.

There are a lot of other pieces to the puzzle as well, Gohr said. For example, he and 911 Administrator Kathy Herrick had been discussing how to move the county 911 system to a state internet-based system before the dispatch center move.

Making the switch would mean that phone lines from all the different county landline telephone service providers wouldn’t need to be installed in the new dispatch center, potentially saving about $50,000, he said.

“It’s something that every county is going to,” Gohr said. “A few years back the state took over the cellular 911. They made their own statewide network and they manage that network, and we are on that already. Now the state is also taking over what we call the wire line.”

Gohr said he and the other dispatchers are eager for the move, from what has become cramped quarters at City Hall to new facilities and much more space in the LEC.

Being located in the same area as the county Emergency Management Agency will also have advantages, he said, improving communications between that agency and dispatch in the event of an emergency.

Having just become the point man on helping plan for the move, Gohr said he has a lot of work ahead of him, but he’s looking forward to it.

“I’m excited for the extra challenges,” he said. “I like challenges. I’m excited to get moved over to the new location.”