Farmville Town Council, after its closed session Dec. 12, announced that the council approved the contract allowing the town’s dispatch center to also serve as the dispatch center for Longwood University.

The new system is expected to take effect Jan. 25.

“We’ll be the answering point for Longwood University,” Town Manager Gerald Spates said about the town’s dispatch service.

Spates said the town already provides dispatch services to Hampden-Sydney College.

“It makes sense that you have one central dispatch,” Spates said.

“We’ve got all of the equipment,” Spates said. “We’ve been doing it for, I guess since the 70s. So we’ve got a lot of experience in handling the 911 calls. We just think it would be better for everybody to be at one location.”

The town already handles 911 calls for the university. Following the agreement, the town will dispatch the proper law enforcement for after-hours calls that take place on campus. Spates used the example of students locked out of their dorm rooms.

Spates said the town dispatch center would also operate the emergency call towers along Longwood’s campus, called emergency blue lights.

Longwood’s own dispatch center, prior to the agreement, worked in tandem with Longwood’s Police Department.

Longwood’s dispatch center, according to its website, is comprised of supervisor Sergeant Ray Ostrander, six classified dispatchers and four part time dispatchers certified by the Department of Criminal Justice Services.

Spates said the town will hire three new dispatchers. Spates said they would be considering Longwood dispatch representatives who apply for the positions and that some Longwood representatives have already taken jobs at other places on campus.

Spates and Longwood Spokesman Matthew McWilliams said that the Longwood Police Department is expected to stay the same, including working out of the same location at the university.

“I think it’s a win-win situation for everybody, because everybody’s cross-trained, everybody works together, everybody helps each other,” Spates said. “I think it’s an asset for us to be doing it for Longwood. And I think it’s an asset for Longwood too.”

McWilliams said the combined services will benefit the campus and wider community.

“Longwood and the town are best when we work together,” McWilliams said. “Combining resources likes this not only makes us more efficient but more effective as we work to keep our community safe. The two police departments are already very familiar with each other, as Longwood officers are all deputized with the Farmville PD, and we’re taking the opportunity to strengthen that relationship even further. From a practical standpoint, nothing will be noticeably different for the campus community—911 calls will still be answered by a dispatcher, the (Longwood University Police Department) LUPD will respond, and the on-campus phone number for the police will continue to work as normal.”

The Longwood dispatch center staff will be reduced since the university will no longer operate its own dispatch center.

“Some of those who work at the LUPD dispatch office have indeed found different roles on campus, others have applied for a position with the town,” McWilliams said.

Jackie Gilbert, communications director for Farmville Emergency Communications, provided statistics from the Farmville dispatch center showing the amount of 911 and administrative calls (calls made to the Farmville Community Center directly) the center has received in the past six months, between June 1 and Dec. 1 of this year.

The center, according to the statistics provided by Gilbert, received 6,743 911 calls and 18,628 administrative calls, consisting of 689 total fire calls, 10,159 total law enforcement calls and 1,867 total Emergency Medical Services (EMS) calls.

Farmville already handles 911 calls for Longwood, McWilliams said.

Breaking those calls down further, fire calls consisted of 244 calls of trees blocking the roadway, 229 calls concerned fire alarms, 88 calls of motor vehicle accidents with injury, 34 calls of structure fires and 21 calls of vehicle fires.

EMS calls consisted of 246 calls of difficulty breathing or respiratory issues, 185 calls of falls, 184 calls for abdominal/back pain, 151 calls for chest pains, and 33 calls concerning medical alarms.

Law enforcement calls consisted of 2,337 calls for area checks of businesses and residential areas, 252 calls for suspicious persons, 207 calls for burglar/panic alarms, 172 calls for motor vehicle accidents (no injury), 124 calls for welfare checks and 108 calls for loud noise complaints.