The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office is upgrading its communications equipment.
The upgrades will cost around $45,000 and were approved by the Camp Verde Town Council last week at its Dec. 16 meeting.
The money is provided for by impact fees, money paid to the town through development to help offset the cost of providing services.
The upgrades will include new furniture and updated phone lines.
Marshal Nancy Gardner said that the upgraded phone lines will meet new required state standards set for 911 systems, mandated upgrades that didn’t have any funding provided.
Gardner said she was able to work out a deal for the new equipment, which is somewhat used.
Guardian Air, the medical flight company that uses helicopters to transport patients, is upgrading their own facilities, Gardner said.
“They had some dispatch software and furniture selling,” Gardner said. “It’s an unforeseen opportunity that presented itself to us.”
While the initial price for the equipment was set at around $70,000, Gardner said she was able to get a better price.
“I had to wheel and deal a little bit,” Gardner said. The fact that the equipment would be used locally was a big selling point.
“We’re using it back in the community and that’s what it’s all about for them,” Gardner said.
The impact fees had to be spent by 2019, Gardner said.
Dispatch Supervisor Mary Newton said that the new equipment would help make the job a bit easier.
In addition to providing phone lines to answer in case of an overflow of calls during a major incident, Newton said the upgrades would also make the job physically more accommodating.
“We work 10 or 12 hour shifts, the current furniture doesn’t let us get up and walk around,” Newton said.
Newton said she had seen studies where letting someone get up and walk around a bit every half-hour or so was beneficial to the employee overall.
New headsets will let dispatch workers do so, Newton said, as opposed to keeping people in one spot for hours and hours.
“[The current system] wasn’t built for that and isn’t holding up so well,” Newton said.
The new consoles will also have a timer to let dispatch workers know when it’s a good time to get up and move around, Newton said.
The current system was provided by the Arizona Department of Corrections when the current marshal’s office was built eight years ago, Gardner said.
Councilwoman Jackie Baker said she was more than happy to approve spending money on the new equipment.
Baker said she was motivated by her memories of how things used to be set up in the old marshal’s office.
“I about had a heart attack in the old dispatch system,” Baker said. “I don’t want to go overboard here, but whatever you need.”
