Post Falls Asked To Join 911 System County Says New System Would Be More Efficient; Council Not Convinced

The Post Falls City Council will consider switching from the city’s 911 center to Kootenai County’s, but not before council members know more about the cost and effectiveness of doing so.

At its Tuesday night meeting, the council directed Police Chief Cliff Hayes to report the advantages and disadvantages of joining the county system. The council will make a decision July 7.

“We’ve been doing this since 1982,” Hayes said. “We feel we have a system that works pretty well.”

The county, on the other hand, has not always operated as well as the Post Falls system, said Mayor Gus Johnson, and Post Falls would join only if the county could provide the same quality of service.

Having both a Post Falls center and a county center allows for some desirable redundancy, Hayes said, explaining that once the local phone company finishes upgrading some equipment, if something goes wrong with one system, the other 911 system could take over.

The county 911 center has worked out past problems, County Commissioner Dick Panabaker said. The time it takes for emergency services to respond to 911 calls in Post Falls would “absolutely not” be longer with a countywide system, he said.

The county is planning to make some improvements to its 911 center and wanted to know whether it should include Post Falls in its plans. That prompted Post Falls to reexamine the issue, City Administrator Jim Hammond said.

“Personally, I think the citizens would benefit” with one countywide system, sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said.

For example, if someone had a heart attack in Post Falls and called 911, that call would go to the Post Falls 911 center first. If that person needed attention from paramedics - who have more training than Post Falls’ volunteer ambulance service - the call would have to be routed to the county 911 center, Wolfinger said.

“They’ve got a great ambulance system over there; it’s just a matter of how much training they can get” as volunteers with day jobs compared to paramedics, who are paid professionals, he said.

If Post Falls joins the county system and the county system turns out to be worse than the one in Post Falls, the city could have a hard time separating from the county. In 1991, a majority of county residents voted in favor of one countywide system. Post Falls has argued it doesn’t have to join the county’s system because it started its own 911 center nine years before the vote.

“Once you go, you’re stuck with their rules forever,” Hayes told the council on Tuesday.

Post Falls gets about $120,000 from 911 fees collected with Post Falls phone bills and about $36,000 in fees from Rathdrum phone bills, he estimated. Post Falls provides service to Rathdrum under a contract.

If the city made the switch, that money would go to the county.

Hayes doubted switching would save the city money. There’s a chance Post Falls could save money by joining the countywide 911 system, but only if it shut down the police station at night, he said, adding he didn’t think Post Falls citizens would want that.

Panabaker said it would be more efficient to run one 911 system instead of two. “That money, instead of supporting two systems, would support one and be better for everybody,” he said. “The end result would be a better countywide system for everybody.”

911 The council will make a decision July 7.