By Kelly Wray, The Express-Star
Chickasha, Okla. — Grady County cannot legally keep the City of Ninnekah from moving its 9-1-1 lines and dispatch services from the county to the City of Chickasha.

That was the legal opinion offered to Grady County commissioners Tuesday morning during a regularly scheduled meeting of the trio.

Assistant District Attorney Leslie March told commissioners Ninnekah has every right to move its services to Chickasha and still retain its portion of tax money earmarked for the emergency services.

Ultimately, commissioners tabled a release of Ninnekah 9-1-1 lines. Too many questions remained unanswered, and March suggested contracts should be drawn so each entity knows what to do and what services it will receive.

County voters passed a sales tax in 1999 to pay for 9-1-1 services, and Commissioner Jack Porter wondered if the ballot wording precluded Ninnekah from moving its 9-1-1 services.

“It does not,” March answered. “It does not take an extraordinary outlay of money (to move the system)), so it’s not precluded and it does not have to go back to a vote of the people.”

Questions surrounding Ninnekah’s 9-1-1 service have been on the table since mid-June when Sheriff Art Kell made a collection call to Ninnekah Mayor Bob Perry for unpaid fees.

NInnekah refused to pay the fees, and the sheriff’s department stopped dispatching to Ninnekah and stopped sending dispatch information to the city, Perry said. Ninnekah representative said they think the city is being double-billed for the service. First, citizens in Ninnekah pay the 911 tax and then are charged again by the sheriff’s department, they said.

Both Kell and Perry confirmed in June that there is no current written contract between the town and county for the service.

The tax money is earmarked for Ninnekah to use in the way it deems best, March said.

The City of Chickasha is offering to provide dispatch for the same price as the sheriff’s department.

“That brings up the question of who will pay for select routing,” Porter said. “You’ll have to pay to pick that select group (of numbers) and move them from the county to Chickasha. Is the City of Chickasha going to pay for that?

“Basically, the citizen pays 10 percent of his phone bill for emergency services. The only reason we passed 9-1-1 was for emergencies of the citizens. The citizens can dial and (authorities) know where they are, and the citizen can get service.”

The way it’s being handled now puts citizens of Ninnekah in danger, Porter said.

Representatives from the county and from Ninnekah agreed to work on a plan that would send the 9-1-1 calls to county but rout the information to Ninnekah dispatchers. Calls can be routed to police officers’ mobile phones, they said.

Posted with permission from The Express-Star.