A recent article on the Bangor Daily News online news portal, "Rockland OKs taking over shuttered Knox County dispatch center", is inaccurate and incomplete. 

 

Some of the information in that article appears to be extracted and credited to a news story that appeared in the Courier-Gazette's VillageSoup online news portal. 

 

The facility is not shuttered, and certified Knox County personnel continue to provide emergency dispatch service, with valuable support from the Waldo Regional Communications Center. 

 

While the City of Rockland has expressed interest in acquiring the KRCC, there has been neither formal discussion nor organized negotiations about the matter between the City and the County.

 

The fact is that Knox County has made great progress in making significant improvements in the existing service and those improvements, which are primarily related to staffing shortages, are being closely reviewed by the appropriate state regulatory agency to ensure that all the benchmarks are reached.

 

While Knox County acknowledges past shortcomings in the system, we hope that the taxpayers and other stakeholders will acknowledge the sincere efforts by Knox County management and KRCC staff to remediate those shortcomings. 

 

The Knox County Regional Communications Center is on track for complete restoration of its Public Safety Answering Point, [PSAP] status and certification. In the meantime, Knox County’s 911 dispatch staff continues to do their important work from inside our 24/7 KRCC which is located at the Knox County public safety building. 

 

Knox County pledges to move forward with its improvement plan on behalf of our taxpayers, which will diminish any legitimate need for major change. But if after the PSAP is restored it is determined that a better model is available, Knox County will endeavor to ensure a smooth transition.