Audio shows part of city 911 discussion based on out-of-context statement
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, 5 p.m. — Part of the discussion at Tuesday’s Bardstown City Council meeting about the city-county 911 dispatch agreement was based on a statement by EMS Director Joe Prewitt that was used out of its original context in a 911 memorandum prepared by the city HR Director Larry Green.
EMS Director Joe Prewitt (Gazette file photo)
In the Aug. 8 document about the city’s position on 911 dispatching, Green quotes Prewitt’s statement from the May 26, 2016 fiscal court minutes. According to Green’s document, Prewitt said: “We know that we need $1.5 million to do an effective radio infrastructure for law enforcement to get their complaints off my back.”
As Green then notes in his memorandum — which argued in favor of moving to the Kentucky State Police for police and fire dispatching — “This $1.5 million expense is in addition to the operational costs.”
Click here to read Green’s memorandum, (pdf file will open in new window)
Later in the document, Green notes the $1.5 million was an expense the city and county could both avoid if both would transition to use KSP to dispatch their emergency services.
In the council’s discussions Tuesday evening, the $1.5 million figure surfaced repeatedly.
Mayor John Royalty, councilmen Fred Hagan and Bill Buckman all cited the $1.5 million figure that was presumed to be for an upgrade of 911 dispatch, and noted the expense is a consideration the council should include in determining if it should stay involved in the joint city-county dispatch operation. More than once, the alleged upgrade was assumed to be planned for the next fiscal year — and it was noted if the city had to pay 40 percent of those costs they would amount to $600,000.
NO MENTION OF ‘UPGRADE’ BY PREWITT. The Nelson County Gazette’s review of its audio recording of the May 26, 2016 Nelson Fiscal Court meeting revealed that the quote attributed to Prewitt was part of a conversation that never mentioned any dispatch upgrades or their associated costs.
Click here to download and play audio file of Prewitt’s comments. (1:43 length wma file format)
At that meeting, Prewitt gave the magistrates a history of local emergency communications going back to the days when he and his wife, Eva, started the ambulance service.
The $1.5 million figure Prewitt mentioned is a reference to a 2011 cost estimate the dispatch board received from a Louisville communications company to create a five-tower, microwave-linked county-wide communications system that would provide maximum radio coverage.
The figure was not a reference to any future costs or needed upgrade, such as the move to “next generation” 911 technology. In a phone conversation Wednesday afternoon, Prewitt confirmed his statement at the May 26 meeting was about the 2011 quote and had nothing to do with a 911 system upgrade.
Contacted by telephone Wednesday, Green said the statement he used in its original context as printed in the Nelson Fiscal Court minutes. He said he could only assume that Nelson Fiscal Court’s minutes — which are reviewed and approved by the magistrates — were factually correct as they were published.
ANOTHER COMPLAINT. One of the city officials Green mentions that he contacted in the same Aug. 8 memorandum says he does not recall having a conversation with Green.
Todd Sparrow, Lawrenceburg’s 911 coordinator, said if he talked with Green “it must have been quite some time ago.”
In an email to Dispatch Director Debbie Carter, Sparrow said he read Green’s reference to a conversation they had in the Nelson County Gazette city council story. Sparrow added that if he did talk with Green about 911 dispatch, his comments would not support splitting up the city-county joint dispatch center as the Green’s memorandum suggests.
“Logically, Bardstown going to KSP will result in increased response times and confusion from transfers between KSP and Nelson County, calls being taken by KSP telecommunicators not familiar with your area, as well as degraded service for residents,” Sparrow wrote.
Green’s memorandum only states he spoke with Sparrow and a number of other city, county officials about 911 dispatch. The document includes generally positive comments from a number of city and county officials about their experience with dispatching services provided by KSP.
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