Routt County Manager Jay Harrington and Routt County Emergency Communications presented a three-year plan Monday to implement dispatch fees that would take full funding responsibility off the county and place roughly half of it on local agencies.

The Routt County dispatch center is currently funded through a percentage of the county’s general fund — comprised primarily of property-tax revenue — and an enhanced 911 surcharge added to every phone line in the state. 

Under the current funding model, the agencies dispatched by Routt County Emergency Communications don’t pay dispatch service fees, making the county responsible for funding dispatching for agencies that would typically be funded by corresponding municipalities.

The Routt County Communications dispatch center is responsible for dispatching all nine agencies in the county, including the Steamboat Springs Police Department and Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue.

Harrington noted during an early-August Steamboat Springs City Council meeting that the Routt County dispatch center is one of four in the state that does not utilize dispatch fees for funding and is responsible for the cost of all municipality dispatch calls.

To take pressure off the county’s budget, Routt County Emergency Communications is proposing charging fees to responding agencies once they’re dispatched, as well as an increase in E911 fees, which are charged monthly to every landline and cellphone in the county.

The proposed three-year phasing plan presented to commissioners states that by 2028, 51% of the dispatch center’s funding would still continue to come from the county’s budget, while the remainder would come from local agencies’ budgets and E911 fees.

Under the current funding model, 100% of the dispatch center’s funding comes from the county’s general fund.

Harrington noted during Monday’s work session that local fire chiefs have voiced a request for the county to continue to contribute about half of the dispatching funds from property tax funds, which is how the county landed on 51% of the funding coming from the general fund.

The three-year phasing plan came after Routt County agencies, which rely on the dispatch center, said they do not have the time or money to allocate funds.

“Some of the issues we were hearing from folks who utilize the dispatch center were, implementing full pay to use the center overnight wasn’t equitable,” said Harrington in an interview with the newspaper Thursday. “They didn’t have time to adjust their budgets. They didn’t have funding available.”

Harrington also noted that the first $30,000 of each entity’s dispatch fees will be covered by the county each year.

To continue to include stakeholders’ opinions on the matter, the county is planning to form an advisory board to gather input.

“What we heard from our users was — particularly if they were going to be paying to operate the center — they wanted a say in how it operates,” said Harrington. 

In addition to applying higher fees to participating agencies, the county also proposes raising the E911 fee.

Every county in the state implements an E911 fee for dispatching services. The fees are administered by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and require state approval.

Currently, Routt County charges $2.12 to every landline and cellphone in the county per month for E911 funding, totaling $25.44 per year.

During a May 6 commissioners’ meeting, Routt County Emergency Communications proposed increasing that fee to $4.24 per month, or $50.88 per year. 

Now, officials are considering increasing the fee to $4, matching Pitkin County’s E911 fee, which is the highest in the state.

Increasing E911 fees helps avoid increasing property taxes in the county, said Routt County Emergency Communications Manager Jim Cullen during the May 6 meeting.

However, the increase in E911 fees would not mean a decrease in property taxes, according to Monday’s work session presentation.