Perry County residents continue their attempt to keep 911 dispatch local over the holidays and new year with a petition to create a ballot initiative.
Advocates for keeping 911 services local hope that the planned ballot initiative — which would include a new tax — would allow 911 services to remain local. All signatures had to be turned in by Jan. 2 and verified as registered voters of Perry County who are in good standing. That verification process must be completed by Jan. 23 for the measure to be placed on the April 2 ballot.
Organizers worked with the county clerk’s office to ensure that the petition was prepared in an acceptable legal format.
Among those leading the charge are current and former dispatchers, along with other local residents, law enforcement personnel and other first responders who say they still have unanswered questions to the merger with St. Francois County dispatch. The merger was signed in agreement on Dec. 18.
Perry County Clerk Jared Kutz noted that the signatures and necessary paperwork were submitted on time.
“About 170 pages were turned in,” Kutz said. “Not all the pages were filled with 10 signatures apiece, but there was a significant amount.”
Kutz said to place something on the ballot through a petition such as this, 937 signatures were needed. He estimated there were approximately 1,100-1,200 signatures turned in.
So, what’s the next step? Those signatures must then be verified.
“It’s a grueling process,” Kutz said. “We are currently going through our voter registration system where we have signatures of every registered voter. We compare the signatures that are on the petition, along with addresses.”
Kutz hoped that process would be completed sometimes within the next week or two.
If the number of verified signatures exceeds the required 937, the Perry County Commissioners would create a resolution based on the petition and the matter would be placed on the ballot.
The concern over the 911 dispatch dates back as far as October when residents, along with local law enforcement spoke in front of the Perryville Board of Aldermen on Oct. 17.
Multiple people addressed the board about the perceived notion that Perry County Commission looking to outsource its police dispatch to another county once the Perry County Joint Justice Center is completed. The move was thought to result in multiple people losing their positions. Many of the people in attendance that night did not feel this was the right move, especially when it came to police officer safety, and the general family atmosphere and relationship between the local dispatch and the city.
“I have a second generation child who decided to come to work for Perryville because she believed in the police department and the police family as I did,” Perryville Police Sergeant Jeri Cain said. The people here have supported me every day on the job. You’ve had a lot of people come up here and talk about safety and there are multiple things I could say. I would like the people here to think about the people who call 911 and can only describe the things around them and are confused. The people outside of this community may not know what the levy road is, or where five-mile drive is, but our dispatchers do. Someone two or three counties away is not going to now that.”
