Increase proposed for 911 surcharge

The Phillips County 911 Authority Board submitted a request to the Public Utilities Commission to raise the monthly 911 emergency telephone charge on Phillips County telephone lines to $4.

If the change is approved, it will not take effect until Feb. 1, 2023.

The current $2.30 surcharge on landlines and cellphones is not bringing in enough income to provide for the increased costs in 911 dispatch staffing and costs to meet vendor annual costs.

The Phillips County 911 Authority Board met Monday, June 27, in the third floor meeting room in the Phillips County Court House. The board discussed the county’s need to increase current communications center staffing of six full-time dispatchers in the future.

Additionally, an annual maintenance fee agreement to provide software, servers, services, support and maintenance was entered into with CentralSquare for $30,210 on March 19, 2021, which, going forward, will be an ongoing expense to the annual budget.

Communications center employee costs have risen approximately 18.26% since 2018 due to many factors, including significant increased costs for employee benefits, particularly for health insurance.

The proposed increase would also allow the board to slowly build a reserve fund, which will be needed to cover necessary upgrades to software and hardware in the future.

The Public Utilities Commission requires public notice and a complete review of the financial books to determine whether to grant the increase. Legal notice is being published in the Haxtun and Holyoke newspapers.

The 911 Authority Board was established in April of 1991. The surcharge started at $0.70 per line per month. The last increase was in 2022 when it was increased to $2.30.