Dispatch talks continue after approval by council

County and city officials will continue looking into the possible movement of dispatch services from the city to the county side after approval from the Creston city council Tuesday.

Mayor Waylon Clayton shared with the council various conversations he had with Union County Sheriff Brian Bolton and the Union County Board of Supervisors regarding dispatch.

"I spoke to the city administrator, Mike Taylor, and the police chief, Paul Ver Meer, and we quickly realized that there was kind of some shared goals about that between Union County and the city of Creston, to explore maybe a more unified and efficient approach to dispatch services," Clayton said.

He said no decision was expected tonight, but that he wanted to make sure city officials were kept informed and to get general feedback.

“As we move forward, we recognize that there are several conflicts and issues to address, including union considerations, financial impacts, fairness to all parties and policy considerations with the [law enforcement center],” Clayton said. “We’re simply asking for the council to acknowledge and support to continue these discussions, led by the mayor and city administrator, in the spirit of transparency and collaboration. Any form of proposal will be brought back to this council for you to approve.”

Dispatchers were willing to go forward with conversations regarding to switch, but still had worries regarding benefits and keeping seniority.

The council was generally supportive in exploring the option as well.

“I visited with the sheriff to make sure this is what he wanted and he gave me a lot of reasons, which I won’t go into, but he said yeah,” council member Steve Wintermute said. “The sheriff did mention that the cost shouldn’t change, the cost to the city shouldn’t change.”

Clayton said the goal would be to distribute the cost more throughout the county.

“The city of Creston takes a lot of burden on it and there’s some other towns that maybe don’t contribute like what Creston does, because we pay city taxes and we pay Union County taxes at the same time,” Clayton said. “One of the thoughts I had in there was kind of to flatten that out a little bit if we could.”

While council member Josh Thompson asked about potential drawbacks, accounting manager Mandy Parsons said it’s too early in the process to really know.

“There’s so many little details to work out with differences in benefits and we’re still in a union contract until June 2027, so it’s very early on in discussions to try and figure some of those drawbacks out,” Parsons said.

The council unanimously approved moving forward with the conversation between the city and county. Anything official will have to be approved by both city and county boards.

In other city council news...

The council approved the purchase and development agreement between the Fuller Center for Housing of Southern Iowa for the property at 308 Birch St. Previously known as Habitat for Humanity, the Fuller House will be constructing their 15th house in the area, this one for the Kendrick family.

A yield sign will be added to the corner of Howard and Stone streets after recommendation by Public Works Director Kevin Kruse and approval by the council.

Chris Lane will join the park board following approval by the council. Lane will take the position left empty by Katie Turner, who resigned in June.