NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio — The future of local dispatchers in North Olmsted is bit unclear right now, but some residents say their message remains loud and clear.
“I think the message we sent was strong and it was that we wanted to maintain our local dispatching expertise in North Olmsted,” said Alejandro Chock. “I hope moving forward that council understands that they need to be responsive and pay attention to public comment when issues like these come up.”
Just last week we told you about a petition, gaining over 1800 signatures calling for the city to repeal recently approved legislation regionalizing North Olmsted’s dispatch centers with Chagrin Valley.
Tuesday night a week after the petition was submitted council voted to repeal the same legislation to passed just weeks ago.
“I think the dispatchers had a strong position on this, they did a lot of effort on their own to get people out to sign the petition, I think the city recognized that,” said Chock, who sponsored the petition.
North Olmsted Mayor Nicole Daily Jones said many of the petitions were invalid, but hearing that residents were unhappy about this change led her to take a step back.
“It did make us decide to continue to work with our fellow Westshore mayors on possibly bringing some other options for regional dispatch to the West Side of Cleveland,” said Jones.
But leaders say their step back doesn't mean regionalization isn’t happening, they just plan to explore better ways to make it happen.
“We will continue to communicate to our residents about that issue, I’m still committed to bringing those things to our residents to increase the overall safety of our community,” said Jones.
But residents said they want to make sure their voices are heard, because they don’t feel like they were before.
“No matter what we do I want to make sure everyone is involved in the discussion and that no one feels ignored or left behind,” said Chock.
RELATED: North Olmsted residents submit petition regarding recently passed dispatch center ordinance
Watch more about the petition residents submitted in the player below:
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