Mount Carmel leadership discusses 911 funding at board workshop

MOUNT CARMEL — The Mount Carmel Board of Mayor and Aldermen spent most of its workshop Thursday night discussing 911 dispatch fees with Town Manager Jim Stables. The Hawkins County Emergency Communications District — which answers and dispatches 911 calls — has met twice with county and municipality leaders to seek more funding. Currently, the ECD is funded through an agreement with the county. It has been operating in a budget deficit, with most of its money going to growing personnel costs. If this financial stress continues, the state will step in and likely cut dispatching services, ECD Executive Director Lynn Campbell told the Kingsport Times News in a previous interview. An ECD is required to answer 911 calls, but not to dispatch them; instead, it can transfer the call to the appropriate public safety agency, which is less efficient. Stables, who attended November and January workshops with the ECD, has advocated to not raise taxes for Mount Carmel residents or pull from the town's funding. He also said the municipalities should be represented on the ECD's board of directors. Stables relayed this and other updates to Mount Carmel's board. Mayor John Gibson asked Stables to prepare a resolution for the board to write to state representatives about the issue. "Changing the [Tennessee] code should be beneficial not only to us, but other towns," Gibson said. Other updates The town is seeking construction bids to remodel the park's pavilion and bathrooms, Assistant Town Manager Tyler Williams told the board. The project, which should be done by summertime, is funded by a state grant. Williams expects to present bid choices at the board's Jan. 22 meeting. He also said the park's new swing set is complete. The board also discussed, ahead of its next meeting, a resolution to accommodate virtual attendance at meetings. Following a recent county resolution and state statute, this would allow board members to participate in a meeting via iPad. A board member could virtually attend two meetings a year due to an emergency, as approved by the board on a case-by-case basis.