Rescue dispatch costs can be calculated, official says

A dispatcher at Sanford Regional Communications takes a call. (Courtesy photo)

LEBANON - While Sanford Regional Communications dispatch costs are based on town populations and not on calls, themselves, Ronni Lynn Champlin, the finance director for the City of Sanford, said today it would be very easy to assign a cost factor for a single town department like Lebanon Rescue.

All you would do is figure the proportion of Rescue Calls to overall calls from Lebanon and multiply that factor toward the total cost of dispatch.

For this fiscal year, the cost of dispatch to the town of Lebanon is $42,880.41, she noted, based on a 2010 census of 6,031 population with a cost factor of $7.11 per person.

Of course, you can’t figure the proportion of Rescue or Fire calls for the current fiscal year until July 1, but at that point it’s possible.

If half the calls during the current fiscal year as of July 1 are Rescue related, then half of the $42,880.41 could be attributable to Rescue.

The cost of dispatch projected for the 2013-14 fiscal year is $48,147, much higher than last year’s budget, because it includes a 3 percent inflationary increase and about $4,000 for the town’s local channel it uses for Fire, Rescue and Road Crew dispatch during a disaster. That fee used to be paid out of a separate account.

The inability of the town to assign cost factors for Lebanon Rescue insurance and dispatch costs has proved a contentious issue ever since the department’s Enterprise Account and so-called self-funded status began three years ago.

Referendum 6 on the 2010 ballot that established the Enterprise Account states, “This (the Enterprise Account) allows the Rescue Department to expend donations, grants and ambulance revenue that the department brings in towards the operation of the department. If any taxpayer money is needed, it would have to go back to referendum. There is no taxpayer appropriation for this question.’’

Skeptics agree there may have been no “taxpayer appropriation for this question,” but taxpayers have been paying through the nose ever since.

Lebanon Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole has argued that dispatch charges are not issued on a per call basis and that insurance costs can’t be segregated in explaining why Rescue hadn’t paid on these items.