JAY – One question people will be asked in a municipal opinion poll is whether they want to keep emergency dispatch services in town or move them to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

Selectmen will review the questions on the opinion poll when they meet at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 23, at the Jay-Niles Memorial Library on Route 4 in North Jay.

Town Manager Ruth Marden said eliminating dispatch services in Jay is an option the town is exploring to save money for taxpayers.

“We want to know what people want,” she said.

The Police Department is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, walk-in service, she said, with a dispatcher on duty 24-hours-a-day.

If the dispatch service is eliminated, people would no longer be able to walk in off the street to seek assistance, Marden said.

If the service to dispatch police, fire, animal control and other emergency needs is moved to the sheriff’s department dispatch, there would be a savings of about $154,710 annually, she said.

The town employs four full-time dispatchers. If dispatch is scuttled, three would be eliminated with one staying on as the police secretary, she said.

One dispatcher has already given notice, Marden said, and the town doesn’t want to hire someone full-time before it sees if voters want to eliminate the service.

Instead, the town will use reserve dispatchers to fill the vacancy, she said.