County Considers Options After Running Deficit On 911 Calls
File Photo: Kentucky State Seal in the courtroom at Mercer County Fiscal Courthouse.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
[email protected]
The Mercer County Fiscal Court is considering their options on paying for 911 services after running a $107,000 deficit for the past year.
In May 2023, the fiscal court set a $1.75 per month service fee on residential and commercial water meters. The revenue was to pay Bluegrass 911 Communications, except for three percent, which was withheld by collecting entities.
At the fiscal court’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 10, they revisited the issue after Judge-Executive Sarah Steele announced the county had run a $107,000 deficit, which she attributed in part to a major increase in call volume. Mercer is one of four counties that use Bluegrass 911, and she said Mercer’s percentage of 911 calls had increased from 23 percent to 25 percent, which she said accounted for approximately $60,000 of the deficit. Steele also attributed the deficit in part because the fee wasn’t added to bills until August. Before that, she said 911 services were still being collected on landlines, which, as a share of the market, have been in steady decline for decades.
“Most people don’t have landlines anymore,” Steele said. She said the deficit was originally worse because the City of Harrodsburg was behind on their contribution. The county also lost out on another $12,000 because the initial report on the number of taps was inflated.
Magistrate Tim Darland said there was another contributing factor: 200 customers of the North Mercer Water District who were deducting their 911 fees.
“Is there anything we can do for that?” Darland asked Tuesday. “That’s ridiculous, in my opinion.”
“I don’t have the wherewithal to file civil suits,” said County Attorney Ted Dean. Dean suggested contracting with a collection agency.
“If you don’t have to pay it, nobody has to pay it,” Dean said.
“It’s $1.75,” Darland said. “I don’t understand what people’s thinking.”
“We’ve got to have 911,” Darland said.
Steele noted the $107,000 deficit is above what taxpayers are already paying.
“We’re not the only county that has a deficit,” Steele said. She said they’d discussed the issue with the City of Harrodsburg.
“A lot of the run volume is happening in the city,” Steele said.
The rise in 911 calls is caused, in part, by an increase in multiple services getting called out, she said.
“It makes our call volume increase,” Steele said.
“Sometimes they have to have more people there because the call volume is so high,” she said. “We’re seeing a need for more dispatchers being in a room at a time.”
How to pay for 911 operations in a time of declining land lines is not a new problem. Back in 2019, both Harrodsburg and Burgin voted to institute a $40 parcel to pay for 911 operations, which subsequently failed to pass for lack of a motion at a special-called hearing of the fiscal court. That left the county to use carryover funds to pay for the federally-mandated service. In 2021, both the city and the county voted to merge services with Bluegrass 911.
Steele said Garrard and Lincoln are charging $4 tap fees. She said she would prepare some “possibilities”—including possibly raising the fee—the magistrates could take action on at the next meeting.
