YOUNGSTOWN — Poland Township Trustee Eric Ungaro plans to address the Mahoning County commissioners today about the township’s goal of having one dispatching operation handle the township’s police and fire calls by year’s end.

The Austintown dispatching center currently dispatches Poland Township’s fire calls, and the Boardman dispatching center dispatches Poland Township’s police calls.

At one time, the American Medical Response ambulance company dispatched calls for the Poland Township Fire Department, Ungaro said.

No matter what organization is dispatching for Poland Township, Ungaro, the two other township trustees and other Poland Township leaders want to have one organization dispatching the township’s police and fire calls.

The reason is so that calls won’t need to be transferred from one organization to another, possibly causing delays, Ungaro said.

He said the township has worked out an arrangement whereby the Austintown dispatch center is willing to take over the Poland Township police calls, in addition to fire. But the arrangement needs the approval of Sheriff Jerry Greene, Boardman Township Police Chief Todd Werth and Austintown Police Chief Bob Gavalier.

The three are board members of the Council of Governments created when Mahoning County closed its 911 center and distributed the dispatching duties for 12 police departments to the dispatching operations in Austintown and Boardman.

As chairman of the Poland Township trustees board, Ungaro will ask the county commissioners for their support in having one organization handle both types of Poland Township dispatching.

Ungaro pointed to a situation in which having two separate operations was not ideal. A paramedic went to a crash scene and “started getting assaulted by somebody,” which required the police to come. The two sets of dispatchers are in two different buildings, Ungaro noted.

He said he doesn’t know how much additional time it takes to transfer a call from one 911 operation to the other.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s 2022. You should call 911 and get the help you want,” he said.

Ungaro said he hopes the commissioners can help advance this proposal because sometimes such ideas take a long time to get through the process.

“We’re just doing out part as trustees and police chief saying, ‘Here’s what we’re asking. We know what’s best for our citizens.’ We’re not just going to be sitting here saying nothing any more.”

Ungaro said he thinks discussion of 911 centers should be done in the open.

Ungaro noted the county commissioners play an important role in such discussions. He said the two other Poland Township trustees spoke to Greene, Gavalier and Werth to discuss making the change to Austintown by the end of 2022. He just does not want to wait a long time for an answer because this affects the safety of residents and Poland Township first responders.

“We’re speaking publicly that we want to be in one 911 center,” he said.