With Newport’s approval, the Campbell County Consolidated Dispatch Center is moving out of the city and into a public safety complex built by the county.
The center is currently housed in the basement of the Newport City Building at 998 Monmouth St. The Newport Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution on June 16 allowing the dispatch center to relocate to a new facility built by the county.
The Campbell County Consolidated Dispatch Board consists of seven members representing the Campbell County Fiscal Court, the city of Fort Thomas, and the city of Newport. In 2002, those entities combined their individual dispatch centers. The Fort Thomas City Council and Campbell County Fiscal Court have already approved the item. Newport’s approval was the final factor in the move.
“Obviously, we don’t like the fact that we’re going to lose some payroll, but we also understand it’s a quality of life issue for the workers there,” said Newport City Manager John Hayden. “It’s dark downstairs, there’s no windows. It’s not the most attractive environment for that purpose.”
The center answers and processes emergency 911 and non-emergency calls and dispatches or notifies first responders. According to its website, in 2024, the telecommunications staff made over 150,000 dispatches across Campbell County.
Hayden said he spoke with both the fire and police chiefs, who both serve on the dispatch board and were supportive of the move. He said this opportunity opens up more storage space or other space that the city can use for training or other things.
According to the dispatch website, the board is also composed of a police chief and fire chief of each entity (the county judge appoints a fire representative of their choosing) and one additional law enforcement position that is rotated across those three agencies every two years.
Hayden said the move is two to three years away. Part of the agreement to let them move includes the dispatch center paying the city of Newport for its bookkeeping services, which Hayden said they have agreed to do, but that had not yet been brought before the board of commissioners to vote on.
Campbell County Administrator Matt Elberfeld said the idea of moving the dispatch center started because the county is in the process of designing and building a new police department and the Campbell County Office of Emergency Management after outgrowing the current location in Alexandria.
“No matter what happens with dispatch, we were already looking to build a new public safety complex,” Elberfeld said. “I think that’s important to note; we did not go out of our way to build something to attract and pull dispatch away from the city of Newport; we are constructing a new facility, no matter what happens with dispatch.”
He said moving to the new facility would benefit the dispatch center because it would be a purpose-built space for dispatch. Elberfeld said that while Newport has been a great landlord for the center, the space wasn’t designed for dispatch.
According to Elberfeld, the new facility would have things like a raised floor, which he said doesn’t sound all that exciting, but it means not running all of the cabling in the ceiling in the same place as the water pipes.
The building will have key-controlled access, and the emergency operations center will be hardened to Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA, standards for emergency operations. FEMA requires dispatch centers to be located near the center of the building, away from exterior windows and doors, to minimize exposure to potential threats. That is one reason why the current center is tucked away in a basement with no windows.
As for the light issue, Elberfeld said the new space would provide daylight through the top of the building.
The Office of Emergency Management will also be located in the building. It works closely with dispatch during emergencies and events like River Fest, where it is activated. Elberfeld said there are cost-saving components to that.
Elberfeld said they had discussed an arrangement with the dispatch board in which they would pay their proportionate share of the building’s operating expenses. That includes things like insurance if they decide to hire a cleaning contract, utilities, etc.
“It doesn’t make sense for the fiscal court to stick dispatch with an owner’s lease, charge an admin fee, make any money on the deal because we’re all taxpayers,” Elberfeld said. “We’re all in this together. It’s the right thing to do for public safety.”
The same board will still operate the dispatch center; the fiscal court is not taking anything over.
“You’re not losing your representation; it’s remaining an independent entity, just a different landlord after 20 years,” Elberfeld said.