Houston solves dispatch problem

HOUSTON — An 11th hour decision means the Valley's tiniest police department will still be able to field and respond to calls for service.

“We have a new contract. We ended up going with Guardian Security,” Houston City Clerk Steve Cunningham said this morning.

City officials were able to tour Guardian's facility and came away impressed. Still, the decision had to be made quickly. The Houston Police Department was going to lose its dispatch service at the end of business Thursday. As of late last week it hadn't made a decision.

Cunningham said Guardian was able to take on the dispatch services for nearly exactly the price the city had budgeted for. The contract will cost Houston $12,000 per year.

The whole saga began last month when the Wasilla Police Department, who had until Thursday dispatched for Houston Police out of the Mat-Com dispatch center, informed Houston that its rates would be going up. The new price was $44,000, more than triple the old one.

Wasilla said it was really a matter of basic fairness. Mat-Com was charging Houston a rate that wasn't based on how much service the city actually needed. The new price was based on the same formula used to charge the Alaska State Troopers, who also dispatch through Mat-Com.

Houston objected to the suddenness of the change and the steepness of the price hike.

For more of this story, check Sunday's Frontiersman.