Dispatch board sorts out contract issues, seeks new supervisor

The Western Missouri 911 Dispatch Board met at the Vernon County Jail on Thursday, Feb. 18 to discuss several issues related to operation of the facility

The meeting was called to order but before the minutes of the Jan. 19 meeting could be certified there was some discussion of the wording of an agreement contained in the minutes. "I think when it comes to this agreement, we better word it just exactly the way it's supposed to be done," said board member Harlan Moore. Minor changes were made in the wording of the minutes and they were certified by unanimous vote.

Center director April Tarrant began her report by discussing the circuitry still being routed to the building. "We've got a lot of circuits coming in," she said, but some of the service providers have been dragging their feet. She brought the matter of a copy of an agreement by board attorney Frank Foster to mediate a contract between the center and VCAD to the attention of the board.

Tarrant also informed the board of her progress in finding a supervisor for the center.

Tarrant said there were some people interested and she was working out the details of determining who would be most qualified and best suited to the position. Three prospects for the position are to share the responsibilities of seeing that the center runs smoothly during the director's upcoming vacation. The board appointed Gary Herstein as acting director during her absence from Feb. 26 to March 7.

Moving on to discuss a CAD change order it was decided that the order needed to be signed by interested parties before it could be approved. Tarrant also informed the board that when complete the change order would require that the center purchase a file server in order to protect center information. Combining the secretary and treasurer's positions were the next order of business and the positions were combined by unanimous vote.

The final item on the agenda was discussion of the contract to provide services to VCAD. Board members were concerned that the VCAD attorney had decided to strike an out clause from the contract using the wording as a basis for his action. Lengthy discussion on the wording, obligations, practicality, future legalities and possible budget concerns related to the changed contract led the board to decide that removing the out clause from the document was acceptable as long as the contract was renewed on an annual basis. The contract still had to be approved by the VCAD board.