Many Agencies, Many Fees

Monroe County Control Center board decided not to increase fees for member jurisdictions during fiscal 2008. The various and different fees are calculated based on population and call handling: $15.47 per resident in Monroe County towns that have a local police department, $6.32 per capita for towns served by the state police, and $2.09 the county, which uses its own dispatchers. Lehman Township in adjacent Pike County is charged $9.28 per capita, which did go up 5%, while three Monroe County school districts are charged a flat fee of $2,227 each. Lastly, the Stroudsburg school district uses the control center to communicate with its school police, and so pays $4.48 per student–but they recently downgraded the police force to a security guard unit, so that fee will change. The board also debated dispatcher incentives at a recent meeting, noting they make from $12 to $18.11 per hour, and now can receive annual $1 per hour bonuses, or $2,080 a year. The board wanted to raise the bonus to $2 an hour to help retain good employees, and decided to defer a decision to a future meeting.