Posts Tagged Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM)

House fire in Plainfield, 9-2-24 (more)

Sep 4

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | No Comments

Excerpts from wjol.com:

At approximately 1:55 a.m. on Monday, September 2, 2024, the Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM) received a 911 call stating there was a smell of smoke in a home.

The first arrivingPlainfield Fire Protection District fire unit arrived within six minutes of the 911 call and found smoke coming from around the basement door. Firefighters deployed a hose line and extinguished the fire that was contained to the basement. The family, who was asleep at the time, was alerted of the fire and able to escape due to functioning smoke alarms. A family pet perished as a result of the fire. The home was deemed uninhabitable and sustained approximately$150,000 in damage. The fire was investigated by the Plainfield Fire Protection District Fire Investigators and was determined to be accidental caused by a charging hoverboard.

Tags: chicagoareafire.com, Chicagoareafire.com/blog, house fire in Plainfield, Plainfield Fire Protection District, Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM)

Bolingbrook announces savings from outsourcing 911 call center

Jun 7

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Excerpts from the Chicagotribune.com:

Outsourcing 911 service in November has saved Bolingbrook $319,000 while maintaining excellent response times, officials say. Instead of staffing its own call center, the village is now one of 21 entities under the umbrella of the Western Will County Communication Center, or Wescom.

“The consolidation worked for us, financially, on both the police and fire sides,” said Thomas Ross, Bolingbrook public safety director who serves as chief of both departments. “We’ve calculated that it’s about 22 percent less expensive than running our own 911 call center.”

Nineteen full-time positions with the accompanying overhead of pay benefits were eliminated, but Wescom immediately hired many of those workrs. With a population of more than 73,000, Bolingbrook employs 113 police officers and 86 firefighters.

… the transition to Wescom was seamless, in part because both used similar telecommunications equipment. Bolingbrook has become Wescom’s busiest client for police calls and second-busiest for fire response, behind Lockport.

Officials say 911 response times have remained steady with increased efficiency through economies of scale.

Tags: Bolingbrook Fire Department, Bolingbrook public safety director, outsourcing of the 911 emergency dispatch services, Thomas Ross, Western Will County Communication Center, Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM)

Another municipality to outsource emergency dispatch services

Aug 29

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My Suburbanlife.com has an article about a decision to outsource the emergency dispatch for police and fire in Bolingbrook:

Bolingbrook’s police and fire dispatch services will be outsourced this fall.

The Bolingbrook Village Board voted Tuesday to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM) to take over the services, a move officials say will net the village a savings of $319,000 annually. WESCOM, considered a unit of local government, is a consolidated dispatch service with 19 member agencies across three counties, primarily Will County.

In addition to the savings, WESCOM offers better technology and a larger staff in the event of critical incidents, officials said. The move also follows the State of Illinois’ pro-consolidation stance, according to Bolingbrook Deputy Police Chief Tom Ross.

The agreement calls for the Village of Bolingbrook to pay WESCOM $1.13 million for its first year of membership. That figure is based on a projected number of calls the police and fire departments receive annually. The following years’ fees will be based on call volume as well.

Bolingbrook’s 14 full-time dispatchers and two supervisors will be offered jobs at WESCOM, according to Steve Rauter, executive director of WESCOM.

“We’ve outstretched our hand to take as many of them as Bolingbrook can provide,” Rauter said. “We haven’t heard from all of them yet but several have applied and they seem pretty excited to be coming here.” Any Bolingbrook employees hired on at WESCOM would bring accruals with them, Rauter said, including longevity level for salary purposes, years toward pension and some comp time.

Both entities’ employees are represented by unions. Currently, the 16 Bolingbrook dispatch employees are represented by AFSCME Council 31. WESCOM employees are represented by the Metropolitan Alliance of Police.

thanks Ron

Tags: 911 Emergency Dispatchers, Bolingbrook Deputy Police Chief Tom Ross, Bolingbrook Fire Department, consolidation of emergency dispatching, cost of consolidating emergency dispatch services, outsourcing emergency dispatch services, outsourcing of the 911 emergency dispatch services, Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM)