Under Little Silver’s proposal, a dispatcher in Little Silver would direct patrol responses to calls from Fair Haven.
Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre has published on his blog a head-to-head analysis of the competing offers from Monmouth County and Little Silver to take over the borough’s emergency police dispatching operations.
Here’s the document, which includes cost breakdowns as well as Q&As about the nuts and bolts of the two proposals: Download Shared Dispatch Comparisons
In terms of annual costs to Fair Haven, Little Silver’s pitch has the edge, coming in at $42,720 — less than two-thirds the $66,084 the county would charge.
But capital equipment outlays would set Fair Haven back $117,858 if it contracts with Little Silver, twice the sum a deal with the Monmouth County 911 Communications Center would cost.
The information in the report was discussed at the Fair Haven council’s February 23 meeting, when Little Silver officials outlined their plan. But this is the first time the information has been made available to the public in printed form.
The answers in the Q&A were developed by Fair Haven borough Administrator Mary Howell and police Chief Darryl Breckenridge after consulting with officials from Little Silver and the county sheriff’s department.
The eleventh-hour Little Silver proposal was clearly a game-changer, as Fair Haven was all but set to sign a deal with the county. As far as Halfacre is concerned, it’s also the more appealing scenario.
“Little Silver is every bit as, if not more responsive to our concerns,” he tells redbankgreen. “Little Silver wants to make it work.”
For the sake of efficiency, the county “wants every town [that contracts with it] to be a square peg in a square hole, and I understand that,” he says.
But Little Silver, which adjoins Fair Haven, has an approach to call response that the county might not share, he suggested.
“They send an officer to the house for every call,” he says of the Little Silver PD. “No calls get blown off. There’s no resident who’s too big a pain” to get a response.
Neither plan, though, is likely to satisfy residents for whom round-the-clock staffing of the Fair Haven police headquarters is the foremost concern.
Howell
and borough Attorney Sal Alfieri are scheduled to meet today with their
counterparts in Little Silver to begin working up a draft contract for
review by the council.
Halfacre said he was unsure if that document
could be prepared in time for next Monday night’s council meeting.
