(KLZA)--During the August 14th meeting of the Nebraska Public Service Commissions 911 Service System Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the Public Service Commission on matters concerning the implemntation, coordination, operation, management and funding of the 911 Service System, the committee recommended that Richardson County not connect to the 911 service system as a secondaty communication center at this time.

Richardson County had requested the Richardson County Sheriff's Office be allowed to create a secondary Public Service Answering Point for 911 calls.

The Falls City Police Department is currently the Public Service Answering Point for 911 calls in Richardson County and relays the calls outside of Falls City to the Sheriff's Department.

The Committee encouraged the two entities to identify a resoltuion at the local level.

Falls City Police Chief Jamie Baker was asked to attend the Public Service Commission meeting and presented information to the City Council during their meeting Monday night. Baker noted the Commissioners said creating a secondary PSAP wasn't the direction the state is looking to go. They are more interested in combining PSAP's and shrinking down the number of them.

Hiring employees to do 911 dispatching was also an issue the PSC brought up, noting there is a shrinking pool of people to take the dispatch positions.

If a secondary PSAP was brought online, there would be no state funding, meaning taxpayer dollars would be required to pay for all of the costs associated with the secondary PSAP and it would be duplicating a system Richardson County already has.

Sheriff Rick Hardesty told MSC News that Richardson County which has invested large sums of money in equipment to be able to receive 911 calls is waiting for more information from the Public Service Commission and expects to revisit the issue in the future.