SKANEATELES - An advisory committee recommendation to keep and improve the dispatch center for the town and village was greeted with applause by a room full of people Monday.

About 50 attended the joint session of the town and village board at the Community Center, where the five-member Citizens Advisory Committee on Dispatch Services unveiled recommendations more than six months in the making. In addition to suggesting the two municipalities retain their center to handle emergency and nonemergency calls, the committee recommended:

€ The town and village dispatch center agreement be renewed through 2012.

€ A joint oversight committee be formed to report to both boards and craft the dispatch budget.

€ The dispatch center remain independent from any department or agency that uses it.

“I think it's a big improvement over what we have now where the town is not a part of the budget-making process,” Town Supervisor Phil Tierney said.

The center is formally an arm of village government, but the cost - about $302,000 annually - is split evenly with the town. The committee was formed in December 2006 to determine whether the center should be dissolved into the Onondaga County 911 system, eliminated completely or maintained and improved.

The dispatch center, which combines fire, police and emergency medical service with municipal functions like the department of public works, is the only one of its kind in the county. Committee Chairman John Paddock said the idea born in the late 1960s was really ahead of its time.

“It was a far-sighted and good move,” Paddock said.

Essentially, the center fills the gaps left by the 911 system, including coordination among municipal services as well as coverage of dead zones in town, the committee determined. Intimate local knowledge on the part of dispatchers also impacted the findings, which still need to be distilled in a final report.

“We learned a lot just from going there and watching them work,” Paddock said afterward.

In addition to observing the Skaneateles and county operations, the committee had several public input meetings and interviews. The committee further recommended the dispatch center be located in the fire station being built on Genesee Street. Another recommendation calls for a $75,000 to $125,000 investment in a new dispatch console.

Staff writer Shane Liebler can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or shane.liebler@lee.net