McMinn 911 system to cover Etowah

ETOWAH, Tenn. - The Etowah City Commission has agreed to dissolve Etowah's 911 dispatch services and use McMinn County's 911 services effective Jan. 3.

"We handle 45,000 emergency calls a year, plus another 100,000 administrative calls," said Marvin Kelley, director of the McMinn County Emergency Communications District. He said McMinn's 911 services would be able to handle Etowah's needs.

Kelley said McMinn 911 could do three things for Etowah: expedite response times; stop tax duplication of $8,000 in expenditures that the McMinn and Etowah 911 centers each spend on TBI information services; and significantly relieve the city's budget problems.

He identified another future benefit, as well: McMinn 911 has been making preparations to go to a digital platform that will allow receipt and transmission of mobile-phone texts and pictures and laptop communications.

"It's the next generation of 911," Kelley said.

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He noted what he called another plus for the city's budget: It will not have to shoulder the expense of upgrading its current service to the improved digital platform.

Etowah Mayor Burke Garwood said the switch to McMinn 911 likely would save the city about $70,000 next year. The city now faces a $122,000 deficit.

He said he wanted to ensure that the change didn't mean any of Etowah's full-time emergency dispatchers would lose jobs. Garwood said two full-timers remain with the city, and one of them is eligible to retire next year. A third full-timer may pursue work with McMinn 911, he said.

Other budgetary solutions have been brought to the City Commission table in the last month. One heated topic is the possible dissolution of the Etowah Fire Department, with the transfer of its full-time firefighters to a rural volunteer firehouse.

"That is still in the talking stage," Garwood said at last week's commission meeting. "It's not like we're trying to hide anything; it's just that we're not there yet."

Several audience members expressed concern that their insurance rates would increase. Some said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to keep the city's fire department.

In other business, commissioners voted to switch their insurance provider to United Healthcare at the Monday meeting after listening to a presentation by Heath McKeehan of Athens Insurance.

McKeehan said if the city remained with Humana, it could expect a $38,000 premium increase. He said a flexible spending account plan for the city's employees through United Healthcare would save Etowah about $45,000.

Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. E-mail him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com

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