As Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. and Herkimer County Chairman Vincent J. Bono explore consolidating their emergency 911 services into one dispatch system, Oneida County’s director of emergency services, Ed Stevens, discusses what steps they would need to make that change and how the 911 center would look going forward.

Stevens became the director of emergency services at the start of 2020. He says the COVID-19 pandemic played a key role in the worker shortage.

“Us specifically with civil service, they were not giving civil service tests because you could not gather in the same place, which would push back the opportunity to have applicants under the circumstances,” Stevens said. “When we were losing people we did not necessarily have the same mechanism to hire them through the civil service process.”

Stevens says there are many factors to consider when looking at combining the two, one being the software because the two counties use different programs.

“So we would be reviewing that and taking a look at exactly how to implement that either using them individually or consolidating those into one in the future,” Stevens said.

Herkimer County has a compliment of 16 with only half of that staffed. Oneida County has a compliment of 52 with 32 staffed and 16 people currently in training. Logistically, Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente says it would make sense that the emergency services be operated out of Oneida County.

“We have a back-up center, Herkimer doesn’t,” Picente said. “Also, there are factors that can be improved. Since we run all along the boundary of Herkimer from the southern part of our county to the North Country, it really fits in with the mission. The goal is to provide an even better service and an even more expansive service than we have.”

“We’re actually formulating some committees to actually look at the various aspects of the finance, the logistics, the operation and the personnel,” Stevens said.

If both counties were to move forward with this change, it would be reflected in about one year to 18 months.

Bringing Herkimer County into Oneida County’s 911 system would be supported by monthly phone, cell phone and VOIP surcharges and shared services grants would be available through the New York state. A combined dispatch center of this nature would be a first in the state.