During its Feb. 25 meeting, the Sedona Fire District Board made the “difficult” decision to move its current 911 services to the city of Cottonwood, which recently opened a state-of-the-art communications center.

Taking the first step toward doing so, the SFD board approved on Tuesday, March 18, the release of $100,000 from the contingency fund to help cover the cost of the transition. Another $150,000 will be budgeted for fiscal year 2015-16.

“This amount is still a bit of a guesstimate,” Fire Chief Kris Kazian said. “We’re still unraveling the onion but we feel this is what’s needed.”

Although the move will save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, Kazian said last month the decision was “gut-wrenching” because it will mean the elimination of up to 10 positions from SFD’s current dispatch center.

For years, the Sedona Fire District has served as a regional primary safety answering point. In addition to calls coming in for fire or ambulance in the Sedona area, its dispatchers handle calls from several other nearby communities and then route those calls to the various agencies.

To read the full story, see the Friday, March 20, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.