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Mt. Lebanon taxpayers will shell out more money to the municipality next year to keep open a community 911 center that costs more than $500,000 a year, but officials say it's money well spent.

"I guarantee you that if this was to be put to a vote, it would win easily," said Commissioner Keith Mulvihill, who suggested that the issue be put up for referendum next year.

Commissioners voted 4-1 Dec. 14 to raise taxes 0.22 mills to 4.79 mills, forgoing plans to lay off a police officer and close the South Hills Regional Dispatch Center. Commissioner David Humphreys cast the dissenting vote. The owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will pay an additional $40 a year in taxes.

Closing the dispatch center would save Mt. Lebanon about $60,000 next year -- rather than the full $539,830 operating annual operating expenses -- because of severance and other costs, officials say. The center's communications director's job is being eliminated, saving about $118,000 annually.

The center has been a thorny subject since 2003, when the municipality spent $1.1 million to remodel the facility, located in the basement of the municipal building. Mt. Lebanon had expected to share some of that cost with other South Hills communities, but they backed out of the dispatch center, sticking Mt. Lebanon with the debt service -- about $127,000 annually over 10 years.

"I cherish our public safety abilities and response, and think it's one of the import core services provided by the municipal government," said William Lewis, of Ridgeview Drive. "However, the commission made an egregious error in going forward with the dispatch center renovation without securing the signatures of the participating municipalities."

South Hills is one of just two regional dispatch centers left in Allegheny County, with two others closing earlier this year amid a county push to consolidate 911 services. City 911 merged with the county in January. Eastern Regional Communications Center in Monroeville is the other regional 911 center.

In many cases, local officials have reasoned that funding regional centers left taxpayers forking out money twice for the same service, since Allegheny County residents pay a $1 surcharge in their phone bills to fund the county's 911 system.

But Mt. Lebanon officials say that argument ignores the importance of having local dispatchers handle calls. Most of a crowd of more than 100 people -- including many emergency responders -- at last week's budget vote seemed to agree.

"Allegheny County ... either cannot or will not provide the same level and types of services currently handled by the South Hills Center," Mt. Lebanon Fire Department President Joseph Polk said. "Many of these services are transparent to the public, but significantly improve the operations and response of both agencies."

Humphreys still doesn't think South Hill Regional is worth the cost of keeping it.

"I don't think the county will be as bad a dispatch center as they are being made out to be," he said. "Our taxes have been raised as far as it could go. This community can't afford to keep raising its taxes."

Allegheny County Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, agrees.

Earlier this year, he considered introducing a bill that would have made Mt. Lebanon an official back-up for the county 911 system. He backed off, he said, because Mt. Lebanon commissioners had not reached a strong consensus on whether to keep South Hills open.

Consolidation of emergency communications centers is inevitable, he said.

"I don't think municipal governments will have the money to run them," he said.

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