Lights Out At Minnesota 911 Center
John Morson's first day on the job 31 years ago turned out to be his worst day.
On Jan. 11, 1974, a propane explosion killed three West St. Paul firefighters and an apartment caretaker. The rookie police dispatcher worked 72 hours straight. Too busy with the tasks at hand, Morson even hung up on legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite.
Starting today, after 36 years in business, the communications center in West St. Paul will cease operations. The St. Paul suburb of 20,000 residents is closing its 911 and police-fire call center as part of a consolidation with Dakota County.
That means the center's customers — the residents of West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Lilydale, Mendota, Sunfish Lake and those who need to report a fire in South St. Paul — will also being making the switch.
But residents are unlikely to notice any difference.
They'll still dial 911 for emergencies. The phone will just be answered by county sheriff's dispatchers in Hastings. All other non-emergency numbers — and most everything else — will remain the same.
"There's the same firefighters in the trucks, the same cops on the street," Morson said. "It's just a different voice when they call 911."
The move foreshadows a major consolidation slated for 2007, when Dakota County will build a new countywide center with state-of-the-art 800-megahertz communications equipment to serve its nearly 400,000 residents.
While today's closing brings more advantages than disadvantages, it also means the loss of part of the suburb's identity and a 24-hour-a-day human presence in City Hall at 1616 Humboldt Ave.
"I think it's sad," Morson said. "You lose personality. You lose personal touch."
Morson is the person most identified with the center, because of his 31-year tenure and his position as civilian director of emergency management for the last 25 years. But Morson quit his city job earlier this year to take a job in emergency planning for HealthEast Care System in St. Paul.
He left on July 31 after it became clear that the City Council wanted to close the center. "I told everybody I was not going to be the last person to turn out the lights," he said.
The closing leaves Dakota County with five call centers, from a high of seven. In addition to the county center in Hastings, the municipal ones are in Eagan, Apple Valley, Lakeville and Burnsville. Those city-operated ones are also scheduled to close in 2007.
"I can see it's inevitable with the 800 megahertz consolidation," Morson said. "When you put everybody under one umbrella, you gain a lot more control, more resources and more people. When you have separate entities, it takes a lot of people to man the ship."
The "money crunch" caused by a decline in generous federal and state funding is driving such consolidations, Morson said, as cities struggle with the expense of keeping up on their own centers in the face of changing technology.
Police Chief Manila "Bud" Shaver said the transition is already paying off.
The stand-alone operation didn't have the capability of computer-assisted dispatching, Shaver said. That meant instructions to officers had to be relayed by voice from a dispatcher. The county system allows for instructions to be relayed to computer screens in squad cars, usually a more efficient method, Shaver said.
Also, Shaver said, the new arrangement groups the Dakota County suburbs of Inver Grove Heights, South St. Paul, West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Mendota, Lilydale and Sunfish Lake on the same two channels — one for fire and one for police, improving communication.
But Shaver also acknowledged some advantages of having local dispatchers might be lost.
Among the incidents that stood out: Shaver recalled when a dispatcher, talking to a suicidal person on a cell phone who wouldn't give her location or name, recognized the woman's voice from a previous incident. That familiarity started a conversation that ended with the woman getting help, Shaver said.
The West St. Paul call center had six civilian employees. All but two have found jobs elsewhere, Shaver said, and he hopes they will find positions.
Brian Bonner can be reached at bbonner@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2173.
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