The Logan County Sheriff’s Office hosted an informal town hall style meeting Tuesday evening, Sept. 16, at Indian Lake High School to provide information about the proposed 2-mill levy for a countywide 911 dispatch center that will appear on the November ballot, and to field questions and concerns from area residents.
A small crowd turned out to the ILHS auditorium, and Sheriff Randy Dodds noted that future levy question and answer style sessions are planned for locations to be accessible to residents in other areas of Logan County, with dates and times to be announced.
Sheriff Dodds and Lt. Ryan Furlong led most of the presentation, and reported that the five-year levy would generate approximately $3.5 million per year. Approximately $2.1 million of the annual funding would provide staff and wages for communications staff, while about $1.4 million would be utilized for technology for the communications center.
The funds will be set aside specifically for the countywide communications center, and cannot be used for deputy or corrections staff salaries and can’t pay for other LCSO expenses, Sheriff Dodds clarified when asked by an attendee.
If approved by voters Nov. 4, the levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 property $70 a year.
“It’s an investment in community safety. There’s a need for this as a benefit for the entire county,” the sheriff said. “The longer we operate two parallel systems, the more we risk delays in response, gaps in communication, and duplication of effort. In an emergency, every second counts.”
The proposed system would bring every Logan County resident under the emergency dispatch service housed at the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, 284 S. County Road 32.
Currently, the Logan County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers provide services for the LCSO, all of the county fire and EMS departments and the village police departments, without cost to those departments.
Bellefontaine Police Department’s dispatchers provide services specifically for BPD officers and Bellefontaine Fire and EMS.
Among the 911 calls that the sheriff’s office received in 2024, Lt. Furlong said of those 2,600 911 calls from a cell phone that to be transferred to the city’s dispatch, wasting valuable seconds or even minutes in an emergency.
“We’re trying to speed up the process,” he said.
The sheriff acknowledged the difficulty in the timing of the levy, with properties in Logan County up for re-evaluation this year, a mandated process to update property values to current market value that occurs every six years. A number of comments from attendees focused on their concerns about the affordability of this ballot issue.
“Our property values have doubled. We’re concerned about our safety too, but we also want to stay in our homes,” one attendee said, with others noting that they are senior citizens and are on fixed income.
While the levy represents a new property tax, officials said it allows both the Logan County Sheriff’s Office and Bellefontaine Police Department to redirect existing general fund spending previously used for dispatch operations.
As noted by the lieutenant and sheriff, the biggest component of the levy funding would go toward staff salaries for the communications personnel. In recent years, staffing the LCSO’s communications center has been very difficult, with pay lagging behind other area departments.
The sheriff and other county officials in attendance noted one of the goals with the levy is to improve this hiring and retention problem.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult to hire good staff,” Sheriff Dodds said. “This is a great community, but we’re also losing our staff to other agencies and to other counties, often just 15 minutes away, where the pay is better.
“The idea is if we can have this communications center paid for with the levy, that frees up the general fund for our other expenses and we can focus on having more boots on the ground in general.”
The LCSO currently has six dispatchers, with two additional dispatchers in training. The sheriff related the Bellefontaine Police Department also has six dispatchers at this time.
Ideally, the new countywide communications center would employ a total of 16 dispatchers, which would be a big improvement, both for the dispatchers and the service they’d be able to provide for the public, the sheriff said.
“Right now, our dispatchers are buried in overtime,” Sheriff Dodds said. “They’re often working one to a shift, and that is not what we want. If a major emergency arises, that’s not a good situation.
“We should have more staff on a shift, and the levy would enable us to do that.”
All of the current BPD dispatchers will be offered a position at the new communications center. Their pay will be maintained and along with their benefits, including accumulated sick time and vacation, the sheriff related.
In addition to staffing, the levy would enable the current LCSO communications center to be converted into the county-wide communications center.
Presently, the LCSO communications center has three public safety answering points (workstations for dispatchers) in the space that opened in the fall of 2022 after remodeling a former courtroom at the sheriff’s office. Plans with the levy funds are to add additional dispatcher workstations and equipment in this same space, Lt. Furlong said.
The LCSO officials said the equipment and technology costs are on the rise, and staying on top of technology is a priority in law enforcement.
“911 expenses never stop,” said Lt. Furlong noting that their approximately 10-year old 911 system will be replaced this fall, with the county splitting the approximately $600,000 cost with Bellefontaine, Sidney and Shelby County.
The sheriff noted that there would be a board to oversee county 911 communications center, with representation from the sheriff’s office, Bellefontaine Police Department, village fire departments, city of Bellefontaine, Logan County and other entities.
Logan County Commissioner Joe Antram asked those in attendance to carefully consider the issue and to reach out with further questions.
“I think it’s a good investment. It’s showing that we support law enforcement in our county. We want this to be a source of revenue to take care of the 911 system and to take care of our people’s safety.
“We want to take our local successes in the law enforcement field and further develop them.”
