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CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) The Barnes County Commission voted to use ,442 to build a new public service answering point system tower that will stand 180 feet. The money will also cover the cost of dismantling the old tower. The commission also approved of purchasing a repeater system and to re-program radios for ,274.

As the agenda item was being discussed Commissioner John Froelich reminded the commission about the costs associated with taking over the PSAP system from the city. He says when the city ran it the annual cost was $300,000 to the city, now Froelich believes the cost will rise to $600,000 annually for the county.

Commission president Eldred Knutson says when the city had control of PSAP the county paid $80,000 annually. He reminded Froelich that right now the city doesn’t pay anything to help the county with those expenses.

The commission approved of a motion to appropriate the money for the PSAP tower and other equipment on a 3 to one vote. Commissioner Phil Leitner voted against the motion. Commissioner Cindy Schwehr did not attend the September 16 meeting.

Meanwhile Barnes County Emergency Manager Kim Franklin says 48.3 percent of dispatcher calls for service were for the Sheriff’s office while 34.5 percent of calls for service were for the Valley City police department. Another 10.1 percent of those calls were for dispatch center, 3.1 percent for ambulance, 2.1 percent for the jail and 1 percent or less for the Valley City Fire and Public Works Departments were recorded over a one month period this summer at the request of the Barnes County Commission.

Franklin says Valley City Officials have stated that they will not contract with the Barnes County Dispatch to answer administrative and after hour’s phone calls for the Valley City Police Department; to maintain communications with the citizens the Valley City Police Department Commissioner has said that the PD will arrange for the PD phones to be answered by their officers on duty.

In the past the Valley City Administrator has said that the city will remove the phone in the lobby of the PD or provide another PD Administration number through the PD to be called.

Franklin says the answering machine in the PD was also to be changed so citizens could leave a message when requesting information or for the phones to roll over to cell phones used by the officers. None of this has been completed to date and the Barnes County Dispatch Center is still getting non-emergency calls for the Police Department.