Dispatching centers to merge by Sept. 1 - By Richard Boyd - St. Tammany bureau/The Times-PicayuneLA HomeA long-discussed plan to create a dispatching center in Slidell to handle fire and emergency medical calls for seven St. Tammany Parish fire departments should be in operation by Sept. 1, officials said Thursday. The communications center will handle about 80 percent of the parish's fire and emergency calls annually because it combines St. Tammany's seven busiest fire protection districts, said Chief Earl Gorrondona of the Mandeville area Fire Protection District No.4. Gorrondona has been one of the chief architects of the merger.
Thomas Druen, chairman of the District No.4 board of commissioners, said mutual aid agreements among the seven fire departments are undergoing legal review, but no problems are anticipated. Dispatching will be handled from the Fire Protection District No.1 communications center at 322 Bouscaren St. in Olde Towne Slidell. The dispatching center will cover the Slidell area District No.1, Madisonville area District No.2, the Lacombe area District No.3, District No.4, the 6th Ward's District No.7 north of Pearl River, the Pearl River area District No.11 and the Covington area District No.12.
Gorrondona, who also sits on the parish 911 board, said the merger will save the St. Tammany Parish Communications Center in Covington -- the 911 center -- about $200,000 annually in new equipment. He said it will save Fire Protection District No.4 about $60,000 annually. The Mandeville area Fire Department, which serves all of the 4th Ward including the city, has a dispatch center at its Gerard Street Fire Station. Gorrondona said some of that equipment will be moved to Slidell for the expanded communications center. But he said enough will be left behind so that Mandeville can serve as a backup dispatch center if the need ever arises.
Although the expanded center will be operated by Fire Protection District No.1, Gorrondona said six new positions will be available to supplement Slidell's four dispatchers. He said that should assure jobs for Mandeville's three dispatchers and the three working at District No.12. Initially, District No.1 had six dispatchers, but one recently returned to firefighting duties, and the other has been promoted to the new position of communications supervisor.
Gorrondona said concerns that Slidell dispatchers will not be familiar enough with western St. Tammany geography are without merit because the parish Communications Center has installed up-to-date computer grid maps at the new center. Dispatchers will use them to call up digitally displayed addresses triggered by 911 calls. 08/11/00
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