BENTON -- The Scott County Commission is going ahead with a coordinated program with New Madrid County for an Enhanced-911 System, despite Sikeston's withdrawal from the program.

Sikeston has been pushing the county to adopt a central 911 dispatch system instead of the 911 answer-and-relay service the county is proposing. The county's proposal would be a central 911 receiving system, manned by a dispatcher, that would relay emergency calls to the proper services using advanced mapping, communication relays and computer services.

Scott County Commissioner Bob Kielhofner said 911 in a third-class county has no statutory authority to do anything but answer emergency 911 calls. "We have no authority to establish a central dispatch; that's another animal," he said. "Now we're talking about another whole program where we would do central dispatch on all the calls.

"That would be sending their police cars hither and thither, managing the eight or nine or 10 cars they might have on duty at one time."

Kielhofner said he can understand why Sikeston would be anxious to get a central dispatch system in the county.

"It would be a great benefit to them," he said. "They would eliminate their salaries and liabilities for their dispatch center. They've told us the only reason they want to do a 911 with us is to get out of the dispatch business, and they want the counties to establish the central dispatch."

The commissioners have said establishing a central dispatch system would be too expensive and too problematic, and it is not what the county taxpayers voted for in 1994.

"That's not 911," Kielhofner said. "In all the other third-class counties around here, and even Cape County, they've got a 911 emergency telephone surcharge of 15 percent. That money in the statute strictly goes to provide equipment and the methods to answer emergency 911 calls, not to do all the dispatching for all the vehicles all during the day."

Sikeston Mayor Alan Keenan said the split came as the city was looking to move forward in its 911 system, and the county's proposal would have been a step back.

"The central relay 911 service is a major step forward for county residents who have not had 911 service," Keenan said. "But by having a dispatcher who is on the phone with the caller and talking to the public safety officer who is responding gives you faster response and more hands-on control. Basically we didn't want to give that up. We didn't want a call coming from Sikeston to go to a relay service in Benton, then coming back to us, taking a message if you will. It just wasn't the level of service we were looking for. It would be a step backward for us."

Sikeston Department of Public Safety Capt. Drew Juden has called the county's proposal "1950's technology." He said the city has "to decide what is in the best interest in Sikeston."

According to the county commission, Sikeston's position is unique in the project.

"The other cities in the two-county area don't want central dispatch," Commissioner Wayne Petitt said. "They still want to be able to dispatch their own police cars through their own area."

"That's going into the theory of what Sikeston's dream ideal situation was," Kielhofner said. "That the sheriff would shut down his dispatch, the city of Miner would shut their's down and Chaffee would shut their's down. And instead of buying and paying for their own dispatchers they would contribute money on an inter-governmental contract for services. But none of us has faith in how binding those contracts are."

Mike Niemeier, address technician for the Cape Girardeau E911 service, said Cape Girardeau's system went on line in November 1993, and has been performing fine. This system has three dispatch points: Cape Girardeau, Jackson and the county. If one of those systems goes down the other two have the ability to cover and continue to dispatch that center's officers. Cape Girardeau County presently has no intention to go to a single dispatch center.

"You would have to work even harder to make sure it has a backup," Niemeier said. "All three of our centers can dispatch on everyone else's system."

Kielhofner said the Scott County commissioners have met with Sikeston representatives numerous times and have conferred with members of the New Madrid County Commission without finding a solution to the problem.

First-class counties have the option of establishing a central dispatch, Kielhofner said. But that requires an elected board that has the power to tax.

"It becomes a separate political entity just like a health center," he said. "They set up a budget and they're not beholding to anyone else. They're an entity on their own."

Larry Chasteen, paramedic and district manager for the North Scott County Ambulance Service, said it will probably be just a matter of time before the commission and the ambulance district come to an agreement on putting the E911 rural relay into the ambulance service's Chaffee facility.

"They just have to get together and agree on a contract," Chasteen said. "All the ambulance board members agree that this would be beneficial to the people of Scott County, beneficial to the ambulance services and beneficial to the fire departments."

He said the county is moving forward by investigating equipment and talking with Motorola about having a study done to determine the best place for a radio tower. The ambulance service would hire four to six new dispatchers just for this program.

Because the county's Enhanced-911 surcharge was initiated in 1995, the system has to be up and running by October 1997, to meet state regulations.