SANDPOINT — Bonner County may ultimately go a different route as it tries to resolve the dilemma of 911 dispatching fees.

County Commissioner Dan McDonald expects the county to give consideration to a regional dispatch system involving Idaho’s five northernmost counties.

“We can reduce overall costs for everybody and not duplicate efforts,” McDonald said of a regional dispatch center.

The dispatch fee issue emerged during budget talks involving the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the 911 system.

Taxes collected by phone companies can only be used for 911 hardware such as radios, computers and other infrastructure. The cost of staffing the dispatch center, meanwhile, is to be borne by the emergency medical services, fire districts and law enforcement agencies which utilize the communications system, McDonald said, citing a section of Idaho Code.

However, a verbal agreement by a county commissioner 20 years ago essentially waived those fees, according to McDonald. McDonald said the county’s was carrying a $3.4 million dispatch burden during a Bonner County Communications Advisory Board meeting earlier this month.

McDonald said the labor side of that burden comes to $1.3 million. One the options the county is considering is eventually charging system user fees, although that proposal was not greeted warmly during the BCCAB meeting.

City officials have said the proposed fees could result in staffing cutbacks in order to pay the fees.

McDonald initially told BCCAB that it was Clerk Michael Rosedale who discovered the county’s lack of compliance with state law regarding dispatch center staffing. Rosedale, however, strongly disputed that characterization.

“If anybody originated it, it was me asking the question: Is this legal for us to be paying for other taxing entities dispatching? That’s kind of how the ball got rolling,” McDonald said.

But regionalization of 911 is also an option, particularly with the advent of next-generation 911, which seeks to replace analog systems with digital ones. McDonald said rural counties would struggle to fund such a costly conversion.

“It really would lighten the load financially for everybody,” he said.

Although regionalized services are sometimes given sideways glances because it decentralizes control, McDonald said he would advocate for elected officials to serve on the board to ensure accountability if the county decides to migrate toward a regional dispatch center.

Whatcom, a consolidated 911 dispatch center for the cities of Moscow and Pullman, Washington State University and Whitman and Asotin counties, has been cited as a potential model.

Regardless of which option the county selects, McDonald emphasized there is time.

“We’re just starting the conversation. We’ve got a year to figure this out,” McDonald said.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.