When you call 911 from anywhere in Lea County, your call goes to the Lea County Communications Authority (LCCA) dispatch center. However, right now, the dispatch center does not dispatch for all of Lea County. This situation may change soon.
Lea County Manager Mike Gallagher, who is also Chairman of the LCCA, stated in a video posted to Facebook that the county’s dispatch center currently only dispatches for Lea County and its services (the sheriff, volunteer fire departments, environmental) and for the City of Hobbs and its services (the Hobbs police and fire departments, environmental and utilities). The dispatch center does not dispatch for the communities of Lovington, Eunice, Tatum or Jal.
County staff, Gallagher and elected officials have been working on a plan for all of this to change. The goal is to incorporate the four municipalities – Lovington, Eunice, Tatum and Jal – into the LCCA. To this end at their regular meeting on November 18, Lea County Commissioners approved proposed agreements that have been made with all four communities for the incorporation of each into the LCCA.
Lovington, Eunice, Tatum and Jal to Join LCCA at No Cost
“The county will pay 100% of the costs for each of those communities to join the LCCA. We’re looking at hiring some other staff,” says Gallagher, who points out that the hope is to hire people who live in the four communities that will become a part of the LCCA.
Now that the county has placed its stamp of approval on bringing the four communities into the LCCA, each municipality will need to evaluate the proposal and subsequently approve it before the actual incorporation will take place. The LCCA board will also have to approve incorporating the four municipalities into the organization. “We’ve come a long way, and today we [county commissioners at their November 18 meeting] approved those agreements, and it’s something that makes response time a lot quicker and reduces the response time of our first responders. It also provides better safety for our first responders,” comments Gallagher.
Hobbs Only Pays for Hobbs
Currently Lea County and the City of Hobbs each contribute 50% to the LCCA budget. Now with the communities of Lovington, Tatum, Eunice and Jal becoming a part of the LCCA at no cost, the 50/50 split is changing.
According to Gallagher, Lea County, not Hobbs, will pay the costs of the four communities joining the LCCA. “Today [November 18] the board, the county commission, approved an agreement that the staff has been working on, and the agreement basically sets the contribution from the City of Hobbs at a set rate that’s adjustable through the annual CPI [Consumer Price Index] adjustment. So, it helps insure that Hobbs is paying for the dispatching services that are needed and the costs that are needed to dispatch for Hobbs and the county is paying for the costs of dispatching for outside of Hobbs and for the municipalities of Tatum, Lovington, Eunice and Jal,” states Gallagher.
Commissioner Jackson Earmarks $150,000 for Mobile Units for Lovington Police Vehicles
With the proposed consolidation of all dispatching to the LCCA comes the need for police departments to have necessary emergency equipment and access to CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch). Currently, Lovington police vehicles are not equipped with these necessary mobile units.
To solve this problem District 1 Commissioner Dean Jackson, who is also Vice Chair of the Lea County Commission, has earmarked $150,000 of his discretionary funding to pay for the necessary mobile units (laptops) for Lovington Police Department vehicles. Gallagher notes that all Lea County commissioners receive “discretionary funding” to pay for projects and partnerships with each community. “The county, through Commissioner Jackson’s discretionary funding, is going to pay the cost up to $150,000 to outfit, to equip, those police vehicles with the necessary laptops,” says Gallagher.
The goal of all – county commissioners, elected officials, staff, stakeholders – is to make all areas of Lea County safer for everyone. Gallagher is confident that a LCCA that dispatches every 911 call made in Lea County will make Lea County safer.
Should you have questions, comments and/or concerns, contact Gallagher at 575-605-6567 or send an email to him at leacounty@leacounty.net.
