Town of Yarmouth Contracts Fire Dispatch Services to Digby
Effective January 30th, emergency dispatch services for the Town of Yarmouth will be provided by the Municipality of the District of Digby Emergency Dispatch Centre
Wednesday, January 23, 2019 - Yarmouth, N.S. - At Wednesday morning's Committee of the Whole meeting, the Town of Yarmouth approved a proposal to contract emergency dispatch services to the Municipality of the District of Digby Emergency Dispatch Centre. Council voted unanimously to outsource the service to Digby, with the change of service effective January 30th.
After efforts to find a fair and effective cost-sharing model were exhausted, the town was faced with finding a new provider for the service. The goal was to find a dispatch centre that could deliver a comparable level of service, at a lower cost to taxpayers. Outsourcing the service to Digby meets this goal and places the service with an experienced and capable provider.
"We were pleased with all of the proposals put forward, but in the end, the offer from Digby checked off every single box", said Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood. "We chose carefully. Our Fire Chief engaged with them on all potential issues and visited the centre to ensure a suitable fit. We're comfortable that Digby will provide us with a dependable dispatch service that will work closely with our Fire Department to ensure smooth communication, and most importantly, the safety of our residents and businesses."
Digby Dispatch Supervisor, Bruce Snell, said, "Digby Dispatch has a highly trained staff with excellent infrastructure dedicated to timely and accurate dispatch of fire departments. Once a fire department is dispatched, we closely support them until they are back at their hall. We look forward to working with the Yarmouth Fire Department and providing a high level of emergency dispatch services".
The move to Digby will see considerable savings for town taxpayers. In comparison to the current net cost of $160,000, the service will run an annual cost of $5600 based on call volume.
All previous users of the Yarmouth dispatch service will be switched over to their new provider by January 30th. The majority of users that have switched also chose Digby for dispatch services. When the changeover takes place on January 30th there will be no interruption in service. However, residents and businesses who rely upon private security companies for fire alarm monitoring must contact their provider to advise that they cannot contact Yarmouth Dispatch for emergency response as of January 30th.
As the changeover to Digby approaches, the Town of Yarmouth wishes to thank its current dispatchers for their many years of dedication and service to their community.
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