Plum council President Mike Doyle said he feels so strongly that the borough needs to close its police dispatch center and switch to the county's 911 service that winning the lottery wouldn't change his mind.

And enough of his fellow council members agreed. They voted, 4-2, on Monday to move up the closing date of the dispatch center from year end to Aug. 1. Keith Nowalk abstained.

A handful of residents at that meeting objected and said the center should remain open. But Councilman Len Szarmach said those people are in the minority in Plum.

Mr. Szarmach said he heard from only about 40 residents on the issue after he placed an article about it in a newspaper.

"Only 40 people out of 35,000 in Plum," he said.

Mr. Doyle said keeping the dispatch center just doesn't make good business sense for Plum.

He said he recently toured the Allegheny County 911 center in Point Breeze and found it has far greater technology that what Plum has. He also said residents are paying for both services.

Plum Manager Mike Thomas explained in an e-mail: "Allegheny County 911 provides emergency dispatch services to any communities in the county free of charge.

"Every resident in Allegheny County pays a one dollar per phone line [cell and land] '911 fee' each month. In addition, the county real estate tax each borough resident pays also helps to support the 911 services at the county level.

"Plum Borough residents are paying real estate taxes and a phone tax to the county for 911 services. Plum residents are also paying real estate taxes to the borough to support our own 911 center."

Mr. Doyle said: "I can't support a duplicate service. It's not the fiscally responsible thing to do. Even if I hit the Powerball for $200 million and donated it to the borough, I still wouldn't support [keeping the current center]."

Mr. Doyle said Plum is facing tough times financially.

Council member Mike Dell, who heads the finance committee, said the borough would likely have to raise taxes by 1.5 mills to pay for the dispatch center for the rest of this year and next. He said the center costs Plum about $40,000 a month to operate.

Plum pays about $450,000 a year to operate the center but can switch to the county 911 system at no cost.

Mr. Dell said the borough attempted to find enough money in its 2010 budget to keep the center open until the end of the year, but came up short.

He said the borough had originally planned not to offer raises to its nine administrative employees, but that would have resulted in only a $16,000 savings. Council later voted to reinstate 4 percent raises to those employees retroactive to Jan. 1.

Council members said other borough employees covered by bargaining unit contracts had not agreed to any wage freezes.

Mr. Dell said the borough had a $136,000 budget surplus a couple of months ago, but the dispatch center and the brutal winter have conspired to create a $217,000 deficit.

"We're at a crossroads here," he said. "To pay for the dispatch center until the end of the year, we'd have no choice but to raise taxes."

Mr. Dell said a 1.5-mill increase in property tax would have brought in an additional $450,000 to Plum and cost each household about $150 a year.

A few residents in attendance said they'd gladly pay the tax increase to keep the dispatch center and urged council to delay the vote until more residents could weigh in.

Resident Mary Louise Anderson, who last month presented council with a petition signed by more than 200 residents wanting to keep the dispatch center, said she'd prefer the tax hike.

"I'm for keeping the dispatch center. I would support paying extra," she said.

Councilman Chuck McMeekin motioned for council to table the issue for a month, but he received no second.

Mr. Doyle said Plum had already held a public hearing on the issue in December.

The borough's $11.1 million 2010 budget was drafted with a plan to close the dispatch center in April. But council members later said they would try to find a way to keep it open through 2010.

Plum will likely have to hire additional police officers in coming months as duties now handled by the dispatchers - including answering phones - will fall to the police department.

Mr. Szarmach said officials looked hard at the budget but couldn't find the money to keep the center open.

"The money isn't there," he said. "We've been digging. This is probably the toughest decision we'll ever make."

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