The dispatching of 911 calls soon could be shifted from two locations in Lampasas to a consolidated, multi-county center.

A projected state budget deficit and the expense of new emergency response technology likely will result in decreases in the number of 911 dispatchers and emergency call centers in Lampasas County and surrounding entities, Central Texas Council of Governments Executive Director Jim Reed said at a recent meeting of the Lampasas County Commissioners Court. CTCOG oversees the 911 notification system in the sevencounty region that includes Lampasas County.

A “public safety answering point” -- or PSAP -- staffed with a dispatcher and a backup employee costs about $26,000 annually to operate, Reed said. That figure does not include the cost of installing new technological features at a dispatching center.

Possible cost-reduction choices, Reed said, include decreasing Lampasas County’s PSAPs from two to one or designing consolidated 911 answering centers.

Lampasas County emergency calls could be dispatched from a center that also serves Hamilton County and Coryell County, excluding Copperas Cove, Reed said. Under another possible scenario, Lampasas County could be consolidated with Mills County as well as Hamilton County and most of Coryell County.

The largest consolidation option includes plans for an answering point to handle 911 calls from Lampasas, Mills, Hamilton and San Saba counties, along with the majority of Coryell County, Reed said. A later consolidation also could involve Milam County, which has PSAPs in Rockdale and Cameron, he said.

The dispatching center could be located in Evant, as that would be a fairly central location, Reed said. He emphasized, however, that discussions are preliminary, and elected officials in each county affected will have opportunities to decide whether and how to consolidate dispatching.

Creating a call center outside Lampasas might require the county to hire an additional dispatcher, County Auditor Jack Clark said. Employees who dispatch Lampasas County Sheriff’s Office calls also work as jailers, so they would not be available to work in an Evant center, he said.

Because a 50-cent tax on landline telephones helps fund 911 activities, Clark said any extra costs Lampasas County absorbs because of consolidation would amount to a double tax.

The 911 expenses CTCOG faces, Reed said, are especially frustrating because $40 million is reserved in an account designated for 911 costs. The Texas Legislature, he said, may use 911 monies in an effort to balance an expected 2011 state budget deficit. State officials have predicted a deficit of at least $10 billion.

“The people in Austin are more concerned with balancing the budget than with using the money for the purpose for which it’s intended,” Reed said.

Reed also discussed emergency response time with county officials at the recent Commissioners Court meeting. At one point, dispatchers in San Antonio handled Lampasas EMS calls, Clark said.

“It was a nightmare,” the county auditor said.

In-county dispatchers do know roads in their area better than staff from other counties do, Reed said.

“There’s no question that somebody who lives in Lampasas County knows the county better than anybody else,” he said.

Experience can help dispatchers adjust to the responsibilities of a new 911 center, though, Reed said. Employees at a 10-year-old consolidated call center in Bell County have learned the roads in their response area well, he added.

Although 911 calls may be answered from a facility outside Lampasas County, the Lampasas County Sheriff’s Office and the Lampasas Police Department will continue to dispatch other law enforcement-related calls.

In other business Monday, commissioners approved a design for a mural to be painted on the north wall of the breezeway by the addition to the Lampasas County Office Building.

The mural, approximately 120 feet long by 12 feet tall, will feature a map of the Sulphur Creek watershed, said TJ Mabrey, chairman of the Vision Lampasas! art committee. Icons painted on the map may represent features including springs, dams, parks, quarries, former communities, railroads and historical sites, Mrs. Mabrey said.

“Nothing, I think, defines Lampasas County better than Sulphur Creek,” she said, “and that is why we chose it. We want to memorialize this creek on the wall and keep it prominent in people’s minds.”

A plaque will honor the late Berta Stanukinos for her work to preserve and clean Sulphur Creek, Mrs. Mabrey added.

Inscription of the map onto the wall of the new county building will not increase the cost of the annex expansion project, Mrs. Mabrey said.

During the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting, Al Burns, a resident of County Road 4366, asked the Commissioners Court to regulate fires at Our Friends Campground. The camping site, which is near Burns’ property, does not have fire guards, Burns said.

The Lampasas County resident also expressed concerns about fires that burn at night.

“There’s little or no protection for us to protect our property or our health or our rights,” he said.

Burns did not ask for citations against the campground, but he said he hoped county officials would require the site to construct fire breaks and limit the size of fires.

Also Monday, commissioners approved a request from city of Lampasas officials to set utility poles in a county right of way 0.4 miles north of Farm-to-Market Road 580 East on County Road 3420.