Emergency dispatchers returned to Astoria last week after temporarily merging with Seaside over the past several months.

The move to Seaside was prompted by staffing shortages at Astoria’s 911 dispatch center, which reached a critical point last fall. The merger, ideally, should have been a flip of the switch, but instead it exposed deficiencies in technology and interoperability that left many emergency responders on the North Coast frustrated.

The challenges also revived talks about whether Astoria and Seaside should combine emergency dispatch centers into a single countywide 911 dispatch center, a conversation that has occurred off-and-on for more than 20 years.

Jeremy Hipes, Astoria’s emergency communications manager, said staffing is improving, and he is encouraged by the applicants and people in training. The cities are also continuing to coordinate on upgrades to improve interoperability.

Seaside has agreed to temporarily assign a dispatcher to Astoria until a new hire is fully trained. Astoria is still working toward hiring and training five additional staffers to meet the dispatch center’s minimum for full operations.

“The hope is that we’ll be in a much better place by the end of summer,” Hipes said. “We’re just going to have to make it through summer and then we should be able to handle our pressures a little better without necessarily having to have assistance from our surrounding agencies.”

He said that as the police department continues to address the staffing challenges, answering emergency calls will be the priority. That means people calling the nonemergency line may have to wait a little longer than usual until someone picks up.

Eric Halverson, Astoria’s interim police chief, said the department is also continuing to look at different technologies that could be applied to reduce some of the pressure on dispatchers.

“Ultimately, the goal is to continue to add staffing and that’s what we’re focused on, but we’re still looking at other options,” Halverson said. “We have to be conscious of the need for employees to have time off and those kinds of things. Right now, we’ve put together a schedule where we’re able to do that and so we’re definitely in a better place than we were six months ago, but we have room to grow, too.”

Conversations about consolidating Astoria and Seaside’s dispatch centers are ongoing.

Sheriff Matt Phillips, who has advocated for consolidation, has said that the temporary merger demonstrated the model can work. He believes a single countywide 911 dispatch center would be in the best interests of the public and emergency responders.

Over the years, separate studies that analyzed emergency dispatch in the county encouraged consolidation. The studies suggested a single center could maximize staffing and resources, improve call times and enhance coordination.

Phillips said a team has been assembled that represents the police and fire agencies from around Clatsop County to determine what consolidated dispatch could look like.

The group meets twice a month, and are working on what the governance structure might look like, the sheriff said. Most of the consolidated dispatch centers formed under intergovernmental agreements have two boards and an executive director, Phillips said, adding that the group is drilling down on the roles and authorities.

“This is a major project that will take significant time,” the sheriff said. “Once the process is complete we will be able to determine if consolidation provides better service to the citizens and the public safety users than our current system.”