Emporia and Lyon County may soon be studying whether to join their law enforcement agencies.
Mayor Jim Kessler gave the proposal to a joint meeting of the city and county commissions Wednesday. It’s not a call to action yet, he emphasized, but to thought.
“We could be here today, tonight and tomorrow if we were trying to decide the issue and come to a conclusion,” said Kessler, who has been part of a committee studying city-county agreements. “Our question is, do you think it’s worthwhile to put a task force together to study the issue?”
It’s not the first time anyone has thought about merging the Emporia Police Department with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department. Back in the 1970s, an Emporia attorney helped write the measure that allowed Riley County and Manhattan to go through with a similar merger. But when it came time for Lyon County to vote on the same thing, the measure failed.
Lately, however, the issue of consolidation has been a hot one again. Most recently, Shawnee County has discussed merging its own law enforcement duties. So to Kessler and others on the committee, the time seemed right to re-open the topic.
“This may be an area whereby the taxpayers can realize some savings,” said county counselor Mike Halleran, another member of the committee. “This is not a reinvention of the wheel.”
What still has to be decided is whether the move would save any money and how it would affect the protection of local residents.
“That’s a question that can’t be answered by our committee,” Halleran said. “We don’t have the data.”
Local police and sheriff’s officers already cooperate in a number of areas, such as sharing the cost and use of the Spillman computer information system. The two shared dispatch services for a short time before going back to separate dispatch centers.
But even if a change is eventually recommended, it’s going to need some state help. Right now, Halleran said, Emporia doesn’t fit any of the three sizes of communities that the consolidation statutes cover. The Lyon County-specific statutes were dropped after the referendum failed in the 1970s, Halleran said.
Other members of the committee recommending the task force are County Chairman Marshall Miller, City Attorney Blaise Plummer and County Controller Dan Slater.
Ambulance
City and county commissioners also looked at the equipment needs for the local ambulance service, suggesting that the two bodies might find a way to buy the gear together.
Fire Chief Jack Taylor and EMS Service Director Bob Binder said the department needed new extrication equipment, used to free a trapped driver or passenger from a car. The equipment that’s in use now is about 20 years old and would cost $35,000 to $40,000 to replace.
Binder and Taylor also asked for a new thermal imaging camera (between $12,000 and $15,000) and at least two AutoPulse devices, used to administer CPR ($17,000 each). The AutoPulse was made necessary by a change in standards, Binder said, which now require a CPR device to maintain 15 mm of pressure. The older “Thumper” equipment used by the department tops out at 14 mm.
Ambulance service was a sore point for the two commissions last year, when the city of Emporia wrote $150,000 of county support into its budget for the department. Lyon County didn’t.
No formal decisions were made Wednesday, but both commissions seemed sympathetic.
“It seems like, in terms of bang for the buck, it might be an important move,” City Commissioner Tom Myers said. “If I’m the one with the elephant sitting on my chest, I’d like to know that the first responders would have state-of-the-art equipment to get it off of there.”