Gilford Selectmen asked for a reevaluation of how police dispatch fees are apportioned to communities.

GILFORD - In response to a recent "conversation" about the role of county government, selectmen here have requested a reevaluation of the way it the costs of police dispatching are apportioned.

Saying Gilford has no issues with its citizens paying their fair share of the Belknap County Sheriffs Department's communication needs, the board objects the paying for police dispatch services it doesn't use.

"...We think the proper thing to do is to charge each municipality for these services based on some type of formula that is tied to call volume and actual expenses..." reads the letter selectmen this week sent to the three commissioners, the 18 members of the Belknap County Convention, Sheriff Craig Wiggin, and each of the other 1o other communities that comprise the county.

The town of Gilford and the city of Laconia each provide their own round-the-clock police dispatch. The other nine communities use, to some extent, the dispatch center run by the Sheriff's Department for some or all of their police calls.

Gilford Chief John Markland and Laconia Chief Mike Moyer have both said that, while each is willing to examine the alternatives, providing their own dispatching is preferable.

Both chiefs have said their dispatchers handle a variety of other police duties and, perhaps most importantly, provide a 24-hour public-safety presence in the downtown areas of their municipalities.

"This really doesn't pertain to me," said Markland who said yesterday that it's a selectmen's issue.

Last year when a dispatcher vacancy arose in Gilford, Selectmen requested the Sheriff's Department take over the department's midnight to 8 a.m. dispatching shift.

At the time, Wiggin said he was not prepared to take over on short notice in the middle of a budget year because he didn't have the personnel to handle it.

"I will reiterate that I never said 'no,'" Wiggin said yesterday, adding that assuming dispatch services in any community, especially one the size of Gilford with its commercial zone, marine zone and ski area, would require considerable planning and resources.

Wiggin has always said with enough time and resources he would and could assume police dispatch services for the entire county.

The topic resurfaced because the county commissioners have been visiting every municipal government seeking input about what services county could and should provide.

When Commissioner Edward Philpot (D-Laconia) met with Gilford Selectmen in July it was one of the topics for discussion and the events of the prior year were rehashed.

"In my mind it's one of the great reasons we've been going out of town," said Commission Chair Christopher Boothby (R-Meredith).

"The process of the town raising its hand and saying 'we want to talk about this' is what we had hoped," he continued.

Boothby said the costs of apportioning police dispatch between communities is a legitimate topic for discussion.

"Every coin has two sides," he said.