Creating an atmosphere that encourages individuals to work together benefits the group and community. By working together we can help one another and complete tasks and projects more efficiently than we ever could working alone.
Athletes and coaches understand this concept. Business realizes the strength of getting everyone on the same page. Government, and especially government of any size, should realize the importance of working together.
That is why your Clarksdale Press Register was happy to see our Sheriff’s Department and Emergency Management Agency come together, - with the blessing of our County Board of Supervisors - to hand emergency dispatching (E911) back over to Emergency Management.
It was refreshing to see newly elected Sheriff Mario Magsby focus on getting his department up and running and out catching crooks. He will then follow that up with testimony in court and put those convicted of a crime in a jail that he is responsible for, that is safe and secure.
Does he really have time to learn the technology and policy and procedure of running a highly trained and effective dispatching system that covers the fire department, ambulance service and can also stay in touch with state and city law enforcement?
It was refreshing to see Emergency Management Director Charles Hale - a former law enforcement officer - take the reigns and present a plan that offers this community professional assistance when they call for help.
Dispatching is not putting someone next to a telephone and getting them to simply radio first responders to go help.
Today’s dispatcher is trained on how to handle a situation where fire, ambulance, city, county and sometimes state law enforcement come together in a crisis. They are also trained on how to ask the right questions, tell someone how to perform CPR and even what to do to help deliver a baby.
This newspaper understands this step will take both money and time, but we believe it will save lives and be more economical down the road.
We ask the City of Clarksdale to consider joining this effort as some point in the future.
Consolidation is not a bad word. Especially when it serves the best interest of the people you serve.
Combining resources, reducing the tax burden and at the same time providing more and better services to voters is smart government.
This community needs to learn how to work together.
