911 center favored by 206 votes
By JOHN STANG/Daily Inter Lake
The margin is more or less half of one percent, or 206 votes.
That's the current victory margin for a $6.9 million 911 center bond referendum on Wednesday - with roughly 330 provisional ballots still to be counted on Monday.
Wednesday's tally is 20,237 Flathead County voters supporting the bond measure, while 20,031 oppose it
That's a 50.255 percent to 49.745 percent split.
"We've still got a fighting chance here," said Fred Leistiko, chairman of the Flathead City-County 911 Administrative Board.
The provisional ballots to be counted are those that have to be double-checked against voter rosters to confirm they are valid.
The 911 board tentatively expects to meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Flathead County Justice Center to figure out how to go ahead with the project or how to go back to the drawing board.
If the referendum fails, Plan B is to cram the updated equipment for a consolidated dispatch center into the Justice Center's basement.
If passed, the bond issue will translate to $12.48 annual increase in property taxes on a $200,000 house.
The board wants to merge the county's four emergency dispatch centers into a new facility in northwest Kalispell.
The 911 board's master plan is to:
. Build a new center that would handle current and future 911 needs. It also is supposed to be the new emergency operations headquarters for all of Flathead County and be the depot for the county's emergency vans and trailers as well as a significant amount of other emergency equipment.
. Overhaul and update the county's entire emergency communications system from hand-held radios to mountaintop towers.
. Reorganize the county's various emergency agencies so they can function under one chain of command when troubles erupt.
All of these functions would be housed in the proposed 11,800-square-foot building in northwest Kalispell.
The $6.9 million bond issue is part of an overall $12.63 million package.
About $5.73 million is for a countywide radio system that is more reliable, more efficient and covers more dead spots, plus computer-aided dispatch equipment and other 911-related equipment.
The 911 board has $5.239 million in state and federal grants earmarked for those purchases, plus another $491,000 set aside to equal that $5.73 million in purchases. Much of these upgrades are in anticipation of federal requirements that will go into effect by 2012.
The $6.9 million is a deliberate over-estimate.
If the bond issue passes, construction will begin next spring and will likely take 10 to 12 months.
The bonds will not be issued until the construction bids are received and a contract signed early next year - nailing down the actual costs of building the complex. Then the bond amount would be adjusted to reflect the actual costs - and taxes would be adjusted accordingly.