Luzerne County may merge 911 and emergency management departments

Luzerne County’s administration wants to consolidate 911 and the Emergency Management Agency.

“Logistically and for safety and security, it makes sense to have them both together. There will be some cost savings as well,” county Manager Romilda Crocamo said.

Crocamo briefed council on the plan at last week’s work session because council would have to approve an administrative code amendment ordinance for the change to take effect. Council may vote to introduce the ordinance at its next meeting Nov. 14, with a public hearing and final vote necessary at a subsequent meeting for ordinance passage.

Luzerne County is only one of three counties in Pennsylvania that have separate 911 and EMA departments, Crocamo told council.

“They need to work in tandem, which is what they’re doing now,” Crocamo told council.

The pending ordinance says council has power under the home rule charter to create, combine, alter and/or abolish any county division or department.

The administration proposes appointing a director of emergency services to oversee both EMA and 911, the document says. This director would report directly to the county operational services division head, Gregory Kurtz.

Lucy Morgan works as the county’s emergency management agency director and has been serving as acting 911 executive director since Fred Rosencrans left for other employment the end of July. EMA Deputy Director Dave Elmore has been overseeing EMA since Morgan’s interim assignment at 911.

Located in Hanover Township, the 911 center marked its 25th anniversary in June and provides police, fire and emergency medical dispatching for 175 agencies throughout the county.

It is one of the top 15 busiest of the 62 countywide dispatch centers in the state, processing an average 430,000 emergency and non-emergency calls annually, officials have said.

The county EMA command center is on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre, near the county prison. This county department must coordinate resources to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies within the county, including floods and other weather-related disasters and a nuclear power plant disaster.

A staff of 90 employees at 911 is included in the proposed 2024 position listing, in addition to eight part-time call takers. At EMA, five positions are budgeted.

Council Vice Chairman John Lombardo, who works in emergency services, said Tuesday he does not anticipate any council resistance to the plan because it will save money and mirror the merged department structure in most counties.

Lombardo said he spoke to several 911 workers at a Halloween event for children, and they were supportive of merger plans to date.

“I don’t see where there will be any issues,” Lombardo said.