Nikie Mayo, Anderson Independent-Mail (South Carolina)

ANDERSON COUNTY – Anderson County’s public-safety committee unanimously supported a $300,000 request Tuesday for four more dispatchers’ work stations with consoles at the new 9-1-1 communication center near the airport.

The panel also agreed to an estimated $30,000 request to buy uniforms for the 75 dispatchers.

The council approved 17 dispatchers’ work stations in 2011. Emergency services director Taylor Jones requested Tuesday that the number of work stations be increased to 21.

The money for those work stations and the uniforms would come from a $451,000 balance remaining in the budget that the county had for relocating the 9-1-1 center.

An Independence Day lightning strike in 2011 damaged 80 percent of the equipment in the old dispatch center on South Towers Street, and since that time, emergency management officials have been planning, and executing, a move.

The South Carolina Insurance Reserve Fund has given Anderson County $3,282,967.15 to cover the losses from the lightning strike, and that money has been used to renovate a former Federal Aviation Administration flight station near the Anderson Regional Airport.

A year ago, public-safety officials asked the Anderson County Council to approve spending for 22 dispatchers’ work stations at the 9-1-1 center. But council member Francis Crowder said then that he thought emergency management officials should buy only what they needed until they were sure they had money to pay for extra items.

Jones said Tuesday that the extra stations would be used for training and for emergencies, such as storms, when extra dispatchers are called in to take 9-1-1 calls.

The county would still have about $150,000 in its contingency fund for the 9-1-1 center if the new stations are bought, Jones said. He said he also expects reimbursements from the state that would total an estimated $300,000 and would be added to the project’s contingency fund.

“It’s not like we can use this money to patch potholes, is it?” council member Tommy Dunn said. “We can’t return it to the general fund.”

Dunn, council member Ken Waters and council Chairman Tom Allen make up the public safety committee.

Interim administrator Rusty Burns confirmed for the panel that the county’s insurance money must go toward items for the 9-1-1 communications center.

Jones also sought money from the 9-1-1 center’s contingency fund to buy uniforms for the dispatchers.

The proposed uniform consists of khaki pants and a dark polo shirt with an Anderson County emblem on it.

Currently, dispatchers do not have uniforms.

Jones said each of the 63 full-time dispatchers would get three shirts and three pairs of pants. Each of the dozen part-time dispatchers would get only one shirt and one pair of pants.

“The uniforms are good for morale,” Jones said.

The committee’s recommendations about the dispatchers’ work stations and uniforms will be forwarded to the full county council for a vote later this month.

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