Approving 911 sales tax Nov. 5 would allow Sterling to divert money to upgrade fire department fleet

“911, what’s your emergency?”

It’s the one call you never want to make, and the one question you don’t ever want to have to answer. Every day in Whiteside County, the 911 call center receives calls for help and coordinates and directs the emergency personnel who respond in your time of need.

The 911 call center dispatchers, who have one of the most stressful jobs in the area, demonstrate truly admirable selflessness. Every day, they hear pleas for help and respond with the grace and calmness of an angel.

Being a 911 dispatcher requires extensive training and specialized equipment, which costs a lot of money. Who pays for this extensive training and specialized equipment? You do if you are a property owner.

Property owners pay for the 911 call center in Whiteside County. Every homeowner, every business owner, every farmer, every fruit stand owner, and every garden nursery pays for this service. The people who don’t pay for it are those who don’t own property – visitors and travelers who stop for gas, pop and chips on their way through to visit Mom in Iowa – because we don’t have a way for them to share the cost of the 911 call center with the property owners who do.

But on Nov. 5, you, the property owners, will have an opportunity to change that. You will have a chance to ensure that every resident, visitor and traveler shares the costs of the 911 call center.

In 2017, Springfield passed an unfunded mandate that required community 911 call centers to consolidate into countywide systems throughout Illinois. Whiteside County has recently completed this consolidation and located its 911 call center at the sheriff’s office and courthouse facility in Morrison. The 911 call center serves 30 police, fire and ambulance districts in Whiteside County. With a staff of fewer than 24 dispatchers, the 911 call center relies on lots of overtime and missed holidays, birthdays and anniversaries to serve the good people of Whiteside County around the clock, every day of the year.

These dispatchers answer the call when it comes to helping others, and now, we can help them.

Because there is no cost-sharing system, the 911 call center budget is underfunded by as much as $500,000 annually. This is not a problem we can afford to ignore. Cut the budget and spend less, you say. There is nothing to cut. There is nothing to spend less on, unless the county were to cut services to fund the call center.

But which services do you want to see get cut? Road repairs and flood control? How about the sheriff’s office? That’s not going to happen, because you won’t let it happen.

To overcome the annual deficit at the 911 call center, the county will be forced to bill every community in Whiteside County an amount they consider fair and equitable. That means Morrison, Erie, Prophetstown, Albany and others will pay that bill, and your property taxes will go up to pay that bill.

What about Sterling and Rock Falls? Right now, the two communities together pay a little more than $700,000 to the county for the 911 call center. Sterling pays more than $400,000, and Rock Falls pays more than $300,000 yearly. Even that much is less than one-half of the annual 911 call center budget. This funding issue is not just a financial problem; it’s a concern that affects us all. The need to pass the Public Safety Sales Tax referendum and share the cost among everyone is crucial to the ability of the city of Sterling to provide the Sterling Fire Department with the equipment needed to protect your families and your property both in the city and in Fire District 1.

A recent Shaw Local news story reported that the Sterling Fire Department’s vehicles are unreliable and need replacing. The city could use the $400,000 that goes to the county for the 911 call center to pay for vehicles that the Sterling Fire Department needs – but that can only be done if the Public Safety Sales Tax referendum is approved Nov. 5.

[ Unreliable and unrepaired: Sterling Fire Department apparatus report leaves City Council ‘shocked, ‘horrified’ ]

Rock Falls could use its $300,000 to fix the roads everyone complains about on Facebook. Every community the county will bill could use its $20,000, $50,000 or $100,000 for something other than paying for the 911 call center – things that you, the property owner, would like to see happen in your community. However, that can only happen, again, if the Public Safety Sales Tax referendum is approved Nov. 5.

Approving the Public Safety Sales Tax referendum on Nov. 5 will help keep your property taxes lower and free up funds for fire engines and road repairs in Sterling and Rock Falls, as well as other things in other communities. And it will ensure that everyone shares the costs of the 911 call center. If it doesn’t pass, your property taxes will go up, the Sterling Fire Department will still need new vehicles, and road repairs in Rock Falls will go undone.

It’s your choice, Mr. and Mrs. Property Owner. Make the right choice on Nov. 5. I know I will.

Jim Wise is a Sterling city alderman.