DISCUSSION: ITS ALLIANCE VERUS CENCOM (NIMISHILLEN TWP) FOR 4TH DISPATCH CENTER?

Everything seemed "honkey-dorey" with the plan to reorganize Stark County's 9-1-1 into four centers, then to two centers and - ultimately - to one center.

But something has happened, or has it, on the way from the current 11 centers to 4.

Alliance Review reporter Stephanie Ujhely reports (December 23rd) that there is a division in opinion between the carnation city's police and fire chiefs this way:

Griffith, who became police chief three months ago, is skeptical of centralized dispatching. Just recently, he explained, two calls were misrouted to Alliance dispatch from 911, and he expressed his concern that more lives would be at risk from the police standpoint with this proposal.

Cochran, on the other hand, [the fire chief] called himself an "eternal optimist." "I've seen it work in other places, and it very well could be some of our dispatchers answering calls at CenCom," he concluded.

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) believes that there is more to this story.

Remember how former chief and sheriff candidate Larry Dordea was somewhat unhappy with The Report because of The Report's assessment that Dordea was against a reformed 9-1-1.

Well, it you have the current police chief resisting a good plan for all of Stark County.

Why? Turfism that's why.

Ujhely's article references two very important factors in The Report coming to the turfism conclusion.

First, the Alliance dispatch center gets significantly more calls than CenCom which operates out of Nimishillen Township.

Second, hich county commissioner has strong ties to Nimishillen Township?

Todd Bosley.

So the Alliance police chief and other Alliance city officials opposed to Alliance being cut out of being one of the four dispatch centers are claiming (in The Report's opinion) that Todd Bosley has exercised political pressure on the Governing Committee of the Stark County Council of Governments to name Nimishillen's CenCom rather the more used Alliance dispatch center as among the initial four centers.

Is this why Alliance officials are resisting?