Financial Picture With Dryden Dispatch

The Dryden Police Services Board says it didn’t take the decision to close the Communications Centre lightly.
Chair Peter Andrusco says the move was made because of costs and the current financial situation facing Dryden.
Andrusco notes the savings by switching to Owen Sound Police is too large to ignore.
He adds they couldn’t keep the status quo and Owen Sound was the only one available to handle dispatch services.
Andrusco says they have been bleeding red since 2008 when they lost the contracts for Crisis Response as well as Fort Frances and Rainy River fire.
He notes the problem was compounded in 2012 when contracts for Sioux Lookout and DMTS Alarms ended.
The Police Service lost $724,968.34 last year by operating dispatch service, and is in line to lose another $718,464 this year.
The net loss during good times in 2001 was $31,766.88.
The salary of dispatchers and call takers this year is expected to be over $641,000, with benefits coming in at nearly $157,000.
Dispatch and call taker wages in 2012 totalled nearly $681,000, with benefits coming in at roughly $145,000.
Documents show the average cost by switching over to Owen Sound will be $97,728.40, not including the one time purchase of equipment upgrades and a yearly $12,000 emergency backup connection.
5 Year Fixed Contract Figures: (2014- $86,625; 2015- $91,861; 2016- $97,405; 2017- $103,257; 2018- $109,494)
Ann Tkachyk is the Chief Negotiator for the Dryden Police Association and she says that’s not the entire picture.
Tkachyk says no one knows what the severance payout will be.
She stresses severance will be going to an arbitrator and the City could be looking at more than a million dollars in severance payments.
Tkachyk notes the City won’t save money in 2014.
{Picture: Peter Andrusco)