FARMINGTON – A contingent of fire rescue and law enforcement personnel plans to apply for a grant to conduct a feasibility study for a regional dispatch center in Franklin County.

Currently, there are three dispatch centers in the county and one just south of the line in Livermore Falls where dispatchers handle fire, police, ambulance and other emergency calls.

The idea would be to dispatch from one center, if feasible, for efficient delivery of local and regional services, Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis said.

A study done on fire apparatus and equipment for five towns recommended a regional dispatch center be established.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department now handles calls that come in from land-line phones for Franklin County before dispatching to the appropriate service provider or to towns with their own emergency dispatch such as Jay. Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department dispatches emergency calls for Livermore Falls and certain services for Livermore to the Livermore Falls dispatch center before they go out to appropriate agencies.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s dispatch center is too small, according to Farmington Fire Rescue Chief Terry Bell, who said it fits two dispatchers, but a third is needed. The dispatch supervisor works in a very small room that Bell referred to as a closet, where she can dispatch in an emergency situation.

“We have no problems with dispatchers,” Bell said.

During a recent meeting of police and fire chiefs, they came up with the idea that it’s time for more room, Bell said, and probably time to make it a regional operation with a regional board.

It’s going to cost some money, Bell said, but the building dispatchers are in is not very secure and it should be.

“We think it’s time,” he said.

The grant money, if received, would help determine the costs of establishing a regional dispatch center, where it might be located, and how it might be overseen – whether by a regional board, or the Franklin County commissioners, Bell said.

Franklin County Sheriff Dennis Pike said his facility is no longer able to accommodate the number of dispatchers needed during peak times, and with the expectation of more calls coming from cell phones that will be phased in beginning in October.

Currently, wireless 911 calls go to a dispatch center in Augusta and are fed back to Franklin County dispatch center.

The state will phase in one cell phone tower at a time for wireless 911 calls to the sheriff’s dispatch center, he said.

Better than 51 percent of the phones in Maine are wireless, he said, and he anticipates the calls coming into the dispatch center doubling in the next year to 18 months.

Pike said there is a need for a third, and possibly a fourth dispatcher during peak times to handle emergency calls.

If there is any grant money available to build a new center, he said, they’ll pursue it.

“Obviously we want to make sure it has a long-term benefit,” Pike said.