The Daily Inter Lake

Valentine's Day 2008 has been tentatively targeted for a tax request to build and operate a consolidated Flathead County 911 center.

Most details are up in the air, such as:

What's the new center's price tag? Where is it going to be? What would be its annual operating costs? How much would a tax levy raise each year? What would be the effect on a Flathead County property taxpayer?

The Flathead City-County 911 Administrative hopes to have some of those questions answered at its Sept. 11 meeting.

"We've got to know how [much money] we're asking for, and it can't be pie-in-the-sky," board member Lane Ross said.

Right now, Flathead County has four 911 centers.

The Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls police each have one. The Flathead County Sheriff's Office manages a fourth for its deputies plus all of the fire and ambulance calls in the cities and rural areas.

Much of the 911 equipment is outdated. Problems exist in coordinating calls among the four 911 centers.

Consequently, the 911 board - with the official support of city and county governments - is planning to merge all four emergency dispatch centers under one roof.

On Tuesday, the board tentatively decided to conduct a mail-in ballot to raise money to build and operate the new center - with a Feb. 14 deadline to receive the votes.

The biggest question mark is how much money is needed.

Board chairman Fred Leistiko speculated that such a levy should not exceed $1.8 million to $2 million annually. That speculative figure assumes that the 911 board would borrow money for the initial costs and pay off a fraction each year.

But financial figures are still being gathered to map out a center's budget and the levy campaign.

The 911 board is:

- Looking at a tentative $1.5 million to buy land with a building or to build a center from scratch.

- Still researching how much it would cost to buy updated equipment.

- Still researching how much a consolidated center would cost to operate each year. The biggest cost factor would be salaries for dispatchers.

The board is split on whether a location needs to be identified by the time the ballots are mailed out. The board is looking at several sites for a center but has not picked one yet.

Board member Diane Smith argued that picking a spot prior to the public vote could lead to people fighting over the center's location.

Leistiko contended that many people would feel more comfortable supporting a 911 center tax levy with as many details as possible nailed down.

The board wants to do the balloting in early 2008 to so the 911 tax request goes to the public prior to other expected ballot issues.

While the Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls city councils plus the Flathead County commissioners have voted to merge 911 functions, the emergency dispatch board plans to approach them again to get formal support for the levy.

If the levy request fails, Leistiko said, the existing interlocal agreements require that the cities and county go ahead with consolidating the 911 functions, and the board would have to go directly to the four governments to request money.