Staff photo / Dan Pompili Austintown Dispatch Supervisor Steve Sinn looks at a monitor that shows exactly where a 911 call is coming from and following the caller’s position in real time. The dispatch center serves Austintown police and fire and 23 other communities.

AUSTINTOWN — Several of the emergency service agencies that contract with Austintown for police, fire and EMS dispatching likely will pay more than they expected starting this year.

Township trustees at a special meeting Thursday approved a resolution to increase the rates the township charges for several agencies whose contracts have expired or are set to expire soon.

Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito told trustees the new proposed rates will be more equitable for everyone and also will offset many of the increasing costs the township incurs to operate the dispatch center.

“After talking with (Fire) Chief (Dave) Schertzer and talking with trustees, we decided that we needed to do a cost allocation based on all the services that Austintown dispatch has been providing,” he said. “We’ll have to submit these agreements to these outside agencies for which we dispatch, for their approval, so there is the risk that they don’t agree. However, it was fundamentally unfair, to me, that our internal departments would experience costs as high as they have while the majority of departments we serve have enjoyed rates far lower than that.”

Austintown dispatches for 23 other communities as well as its own police and fire departments.

According to a spreadsheet D’Apolito provided, Austintown Police Department contributed $831,941 to the dispatch budget last year and accounted for 21,714 of the 86,703 total calls the center handled. That comes out to $38.31 per call.

Austintown Fire contributed $207,985 and accounted for 5,164 calls for a rate of $40.28 per call.

By comparison, the seven other agencies served by the Austintown-Boardman-Mahoning County Council of Governments communications committee — Milton Township Police, Craig Beach Police, Jackson Township Police, Poland Township and Poland Village Police, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and Mahoning County Dog Warden — accounted for 37,344 calls and paid a total of $1.1 million for a rate of $29.46 per call. Springfield Township police and fire paid $65,000 and accounted for 7,951 calls, for a rate of $8.18 per call.

Ellsworth Fire, Poland’s Western Reserve Joint Fire District, Beloit Fire, Jackson Fire, Milton Fire, Lowellville Fire, Coitsville Fire, New Middletown Fire and Craig Beach Fire all paid between $2,400 (Craig Beach) and $35,000 (Western Reserve) and accounted for anywhere from 156 calls (Craig Beach) to 2,402 (Western Reserve). The rates per call were between $11.30 (Ellsworth) and $22.31 (Lowellville).

Beloit paid $12,000 for its 181 calls for a per-call rate of $66.30, but part of the township’s agreement was that Austintown would front the cost of a new radio to link all of Beloit’s radios to the system and Beloit would pay it back. Beloit has paid back that money and its rate will decrease accordingly.

Beaver Township also paid $175,000 for its 9,300 calls, for a rate of $26.88 per call. Mahoning County supported the township’s move to Austintown dispatch with a one-time $75,000 payment. Beaver and Springfield both have signed contracts in place, and D’Apolito said he will reopen negotiations with them near the end of this year to bring their costs in line with their volume.

Springfield’s projected cost for 2025 is $70,500 and Beaver’s remains at $175,000. However, based on D’Apolito’s calculations of a per-call average cost of $29.35, Springfield’s payment for 2026 will balloon to more than $241,000 and Beaver’s to more than $282,000.

D’Apolito said he will send letters out by certified mail today to all those whose contracts expired at the end of 2024 — Lowellville Fire, Craig Beach Fire, Jackson Fire, New Middletown Fire, Coitsville Fire, Milton Fire, Ellsworth Fire and Western Reserve notifying them of increased rates retroactive to Jan. 1. The increases over the previously negotiated 2025 costs will range anywhere from about $2,000 for Craig Beach ($2,600 to $4,654.32) to an additional $33,000 for Western Reserve ($38,000 to $71,664.55).

D’Apolito said the rates will increase about 1.65% annually from there.

Those communities’ expected contributions for 2025 total $91,350. The increased rates would raise that amount to $156,038.96. Adding $2,574.64 the following year for the 1.65% increase, plus the proposed increases for Beaver and Springfield, means Austintown would see another $525,756.90 in 2026.

While that is good for the township, not everyone at the meeting agreed with the proposal.

Dispatch Supervisor Steve Sinn said that while he knows the rates need to go up, the terms he has negotiated with the outside agencies would have increased them incrementally over three years, while still bringing in $130,000 more for Austintown over that time.

“I came up with increases for every contract we have, anywhere from 13 to 16% over three years. Most got an 8% jump in 2025 and 3 to 4% over the next two years,” Sinn said.

“We did this to start the needle moving, because we didn’t want to surprise them with sticker shock and tell them they’d be paying double or triple what they’ve been paying,” he said. “They agreed upon it and returned the contracts, and now at the eleventh hour, we’re trying to increase it higher.”

Sinn said he understands well the dilemma Austintown faces. With the failure of a levy to raise another $2.4 million for the police department, the department will eat into the general fund this year for between $1 million to $1.4 million. D’Apolito said that instead of its usual $2 million end-of-year budget carryover, Austintown will have only about $450,000 left at the end of this fiscal year.

D’Apolito said costs aren’t going down either.

“The fact is that every year, Austintown’s technology (cost) goes up, and Austintown’s labor (cost) goes up,” he said. “It’s critical that we start deriving revenue from these dispatch agreements because it doesn’t just affect the police. This is several hundred thousand dollars in revenue that can go to defraying the police (line item) deficit.”

But Sinn said he also understands that many of the communities the dispatch center serves are in similarly challenging situations.

“A lot of these departments run on small budgets and they’ve already prepared their budgets for 2025, so I think if we make any changes to their costs, it should start next year,” he said. “I would propose reopening negotiations in October, and that way they could then prepare for their 2026 budgets.”

Sinn said he thinks Austintown could find other ways to offset its costs for 2025.

“I think the one thing to consider is that we haven’t negotiated our payment with the county for the COG for this year, so if we could put that into the payment to cover the difference for this year, that way we don’t have to go straight to these guys and tell them we’re doubling or tripling their costs this year and it’s already into January.”

Police Chief Robert Gavalier and fire Chief Dave Schertzer agreed with Sinn that it seemed late to be changing the terms, even though the contracts are not yet finalized.

Gavalier also expressed displeasure with terms in the letter that indicate Austintown will discontinue dispatch service if communities do not communicate their intentions by Feb. 14. to remain with the dispatch center or seek other services.

“You can’t just flip a switch and cut off 911 service to these communities,” Gavalier said. “I understand we’re talking about money and our budget, but we’re also talking about lives here.”

D’Apolito said the township does not intend to just cut off the communities it serves, and wants to maintain open lines of communication. He said final budgets are not due until the end of the first quarter and he will work with any community to seek grants or other government funding to cover the costs of the increase.

Trustees heard and understood both sides of the discussion, but ultimately decided to act in the best interest of the township they serve.

“I see what you’re saying, Steve — here we are at the end of January and these communities are expecting to have these contracts go through,” said Trustee Robert Santos. “But there’s got to be a sensible solution to where we can ensure that we can still dispatch so these residents are taken care of but also not be a burden on our residents and their pockets.”

D’Apolito said that is the job that he and the rest of the people in the room have to prioritize.

“I would welcome assistance from Mahoning County, from the COG, from any other agency that we dispatch for, but we are under contract with these individual agencies, therefore the only appropriate place to ask is from those agencies and allow those agencies to seek outside funding to make up their deficits. Because we’re here on behalf of Austintown Township.”