The Cottonwood City Council unanimously approved seven service agreements to provide dispatch services to regional municipalities and emergency service providers during its meeting on Tuesday, June 4.
Cottonwood has provided centralized emergency dispatch facilities for Verde Valley police and fire agencies out of the Cottonwood Police Department’s communications center since 2013, and the agreements for the use of the center are renewed annually.
The participating bodies and their financial contributions are:
- Sedona Fire District: $385,629
- Copper Canyon Fire and Medical District: $311,165
- Verde Valley Fire District: $231,333
- Verde Valley Ambulance Co.: $181,507
- Clarkdale Police Department: $99,145
- Jerome Police Department: $46,024
- Jerome Fire Department: $7,784
The seven subscribing agencies will contribute a total of $1,262,587 this fiscal year toward Cottonwood’s dispatch services.
When the Sedona Fire District’s Governing Board approved moving its communication center from Station 4 to Cottonwood in 2015, it offered the 10 dispatch employees first shot at employment in Cottonwood with an additional eight weeks of pay; several staffers accepted the offer. The transition occurred in September 2015. SFD has contracted out its dispatch services to Cottonwood since then.
Council also unanimously approved a resolution adopting the city’s 2024 general plan, a resolution calling the general election, a contract with S.J. Anderson Company for drainage improvements in the amount of $82,548.58, a water conservation grant agreement with the state’s Water Infrastructure Authority and a waiver of the city’s procurement policy for the pre-construction phase of the Mingus Blower and Aeration Improvement Project.
Interim City Manager Tom Whitmer said the expenditure will “enable the plant to actually start functioning correctly” and later described its condition as being at the “duct tape and baling wire” stage.
