Clear Creek County transitions 911 calls to Jefferson County Communications Center
The Jefferson County Communications Center officially took over answering and dispatching 911 calls for Clear Creek County Wednesday morning.
"End of transmission from the Clear Creek County comms center Feb. 21st, 5:02 am, JeffComm you have the radio," the last dispatch call announced.
Six-year dispatch veteran, Katie Culp took over following the final dispatch call from Clear Creek County.
"Every day is different," she said.
She's now dispatching calls from the Jefferson County Communication Center but has a history of working in Clear Creek County.
Allowing her to share critical information with the same first responders she's grown to know.
"They all have their own personalities even though we don't see them we all get to learn each other," Culp added.
The decision for Jefferson County to take over Clear Creek County emergency calls comes after several feasibility studies and was made largely with cost in mind.
"We felt like this was one way we could really save the taxpayer of Clear Creek County some money and be more efficient with the way we do business," said Clear Creek County Sheriff Matthew Harris.
Harris says it will also give them access to more resources and cutting-edge technology.
"They can pin a call down in one meter based upon the technology they have and so there's always going to be some concerns and a cultural change and way of doing business for so many years, but we are really confident that this was the right move," Harris added.
While new for Clear Creek, Jefferson County has had multiple agencies under one roof for years.
Jefferson County Communications Center Executive Director Jeff Streeter says they have no doubt they will be able to maintain and potentially improve service for those in Clear Creek County.
"There's a lot of help sitting right next to you at times in Clear Creek and not a knock to them they might have one or two people on depending on the hours an shifts that creates a level of hardship and if something big drops you need to know that you have enough people that can answer those calls direct people to safety and security and provide services to the first responders that are in route," Streeter said.
On hand to celebrate the transition was Georgetown's unofficial mayor, Parker, the snow dog.
While he was well equipped for the job, call taking was left to the professionals.
"It's pretty incredible and I think every single person in this room has worked very very hard to become familiar and be trained up on this," Culp said.
With Clear Creek County facing budget troubles merging 911 services with Jeffco it decided would be the best way to cut costs.
