Westwood Officials Disagree on Next Step for Shared Dispatch

Members of the Westwood Council and Mayor John Birkner disagreed on the best way to continue after they examined a report comparing the potential costs and levels of service available to them if they choose to enter into a shared emergency dispatching agreement during their meeting Tuesday night.

The borough's options laid out in the document include making agreements to join the county or the Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch, to work with Washington Township, River Vale and Old Tappan to create an autonomous Pascack Valley Dispatch service or to keep the service in the borough's police department.

Borough Fire Chief Jaymee Hodges said he was not in favor of an agreement with the county. Many emergency officials in Washington Township told their council at a meeting last week.

According to Westwood Police Chief Frank Regino, the Pascack Valley Dispatch would not be a part of any of the four towns' police departments. The group would rent a small office and be paid for equally by Westwood, Washington Township, River Vale and Old Tappan. If one of the municipalities decides to drop out of the Pascack Valley Dispatch, the costs of creating the entity would rise for the others.

"All of the work goes down the drain if somebody hops to a different deal," Borough Attorney Russell Huntington said.

Mayor Birkner said he was concerned that, by creating the Pascack Valley Dispatch, officials could be needlessly creating "big government."

"Are we reinventing the wheel," Birkner asked.

Council member Robert Miller said he believed a shared dispatch would not be expanding government, but consolidating services for four communities into one group.

Birkner also said he would also like to consider entering an interlocal to host dispatching for both municipalities out of the borough's police department while a permanent solution is determined. Birkner said township Mayor Janet Sobkowicz had expressed interest in a possible agreement. Birkner previously estimated a temporary agreement could save $100,000. Council members said they would prefer to keep working toward the objective of a larger shared dispatch service.

"I think we should stay focused," Miller said.

Whichever plan officials choose, some expenses will likely be unavoidable. The borough's current 911 equipment is outdated and the company which made it went out of business, Regino said. New FCC regulations will also require the department to purchase some new radios before the end of the year, though using county dispatch would inflate the cost to at least $150,000 because of incompatible systems, Regino said.

For now, officials will work with Chief Regino to finalize the document comparing the borough's options and share it with officials from the other towns.