Encampment to contract with County

As 2024 begins to draw to a close, the Town of Encampment has begun the process of switching who they contract with for dispatch services.

At the October 10 meeting of the Encampment Town Council, the governing body briefly discussed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Carbon County for dispatch services. Historically, the Town of Encampment has contracted with the Town of Saratoga for dispatch services. Earlier this year, however, Saratoga’s governing body began discussing the potential of developing a joint dispatch program with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Rawlins.

In January, Saratoga Police Chief Mike Morris appeared before the Saratoga Town Council with Sheriff Alex Bakken. Morris, who was appointed as police chief by Mayor Chuck Davis in 2023, painted a dire picture for the town council of his department’s dispatch capabilities.

“We are truly one power bump or one illness away from not being able to keep the doors open 24/7,” said Morris in January. “All of our equipment is outdated. We were able to secure some radios from the county, from the sheriff’s department. The 911 system we currently have is getting to the point where it’s going to be hard to service.”

Bakken told the council, at the time, that what Saratoga was experiencing was “not unique.”

“If we look at our neighboring counties they’ve all gone to some semblance of a joint or combined dispatch operation center,’ said Bakken. “I think it’s time to take a really long, hard, pragmatic look at where our dispatch capability is going to be as a county.”

During the meeting in January, Morris was supported not only by Bakken, but by Encampment Police Chief Kevin Shue, Saratoga Fire Chief Pat Walliser and Encampment Fire Chief Cory Nuhn. Shue told the Saratoga Town Council, “It’s not working anymore.”

Since that initial discussion regarding joint dispatch, the Town of Saratoga held one public hearing held on June 12. During the hearing, Morris and Bakken were joined by Rawlins Police Chief Michael Ward as well as dispatch supervisors for Carbon County, Saratoga and Rawlins.

Encampment mayor Shannon Fagan, who was in attendance at the June workshop, asked Mayor Chuck Davis if the Saratoga Town Council had a timeline to transfer to joint dispatch.

“We just want it done right,” said Davis. “I hope to get it done by the end of the year, if we can come up with everything.”

Since the June workshop, however, there’s been little public discussion regarding the potential of a joint dispatch center. This, however, hasn’t appeared to stop the Town of Encampment from taking matters into their own hands with the MOU with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office.

“We did send it to our attorney for review and he had comments on them,” said Fagan.

Town Clerk Doreen Harvey, reading from the attorney’s opinion, said “requirements for each party to ensure they indemnify [to compensate someone for harm or loss] the other party are unequal.”

Harvey said there was at least another month the Encampment Police Department and the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office could work on the MOU which is anticipated to go into effect January 1, 2025.

“The only other holdup we have on it is we’re still waiting on the pagers for the fire department that’s coming from the [Carbon County] Fire [Protection] District that are dual programmed so we’d be able to dispatch across those pagers from both places,” said Shue.

The next meeting of the Encampment Town Council will be at 7 p.m. on November 14 at Encampment Town Hall.