Six months after agreeing to handle police dispatch services for Hiram, Mantua is trying to shutter its dispatch center. The center runs round the clock even though Mantua Police Department officers are not scheduled from late at night to early morning.
Mantua Police Chief Rodney Terry, who has served as a patrolman, sergeant and lieutenant for the MPD before being sworn in June 2 as the village’s top cop, told the Portager on July 15 that upgrading MPD’s 20-year-old dispatch center equipment would be “cost-prohibitive.”
He made no mention of the loss of a $55,500 annual dispatching contract the village had long held with the Mantua-Shalersville Fire Department. Mantua Village Council had approved the newest version of the contract Oct. 21, 2025, but MSFD Fire Chief Matt Roosa informed Mantua officials on Jan. 26, 2026, that he intended to terminate it. The contract ended June 1, 2026.
That left Mantua only realizing $100 a day to dispatch for Hiram police.
Minutes from Mantua’s Feb. 17 council meeting indicate that, “with the loss of the dispatch contract, the village was contributing significant funds toward dispatch operations.”
In a July 15 email to The Portager, council President Steve Thorn stated that “the loss of outside contracts, the regular turnover of dispatch employees, overtime costs, equipment maintenance costs and upcoming required equipment upgrades all led the council to assess the burden of maintaining our own dispatch center vs contracting it out.”
The financial savings by transferring the dispatch center to another locality was “overwhelming,” he concluded.
Where to turn?
Anticipating what was on the horizon, Thorn and his council colleagues on June 16, 2026, approved legislation authorizing Ravenna police to take over dispatch services “as early as practicable but not later than Jan. 1, 2027.”
Mantua’s legislation cited a possible June 30, 2026, start date and a cost of $47,626 a year, prorated to $3,968.83 a month if Ravenna could come through sooner. The contract would be effective through Dec. 31, 2029.
RPD could bring Mantua online before Jan. 1, 2027, but “I do not see this happening before September. Some things we can streamline; some things we cannot,” Ravenna Police Department Capt. Dustin Svab told Ravenna City Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee members on July 13.
RPD Police Chief Jake Smallfield met with Mantua Mayor Tammy Meyer July 9 to discuss the many steps that need to be taken before any dispatch duties begin.
Arranging warrants through the court, gaining LEADS (Law Enforcement Automated Data System) access, outlining records-keeping responsibilities, obtaining required licenses and compiling specific information on every Mantua address so RPD knows which agency to dispatch: it all takes time, and rushing is not an option, Svab said.
One complication is that Mantua and Garrettsville police use the same radio channel, but the Portage County Sheriff’s Office has a dispatch contract with Garrettsville.
“What would be difficult is having Ravenna police handling Mantua and the Portage County sheriff handling Garrettsville all on the same channel. We’d be competing for airspace,” he said.
How or if that could be sorted out is yet to be determined, he said.
Ravenna City Council’s Committee of the Whole will consider the proposed contract on July 20. From there, City Council will take up the proposal, launching a weeks — and potentially months — long process, which council could expedite by calling an emergency meeting.
Sheriff solution not simple
Not wanting to wait, Terry asked the Portage County Sheriff’s Office in June to handle the Mantua Police Department’s dispatching duties until Ravenna could come online.
Responding to a public records request, the PCSO provided The Portager with copies of letters, emails and recorded phone calls associated with Terry’s request.
In a June 22 phone call to the PCSO, Terry told Dispatch Supervisor Katie Royer that the MPD was “running scarce on dispatchers.” (MPD currently employs three dispatchers, but dispatcher Jynx Bretz said other MPD employees answer the phone when they are not available.)
“I was wondering if you guys could take us on in an emergency, temporary kind of status,” he said, adding he wanted round-the-clock service “as soon as possible” until September.
Royer reminded him that 911 calls already come directly to the PCSO, but said she would speak with Portage County Sheriff Bruce D. Zuchowski about the PCSO dispatch center handling nonemergency calls that are placed to Mantua police.
Terry followed up the next day with an email to Royer saying he hadn’t received any communication from the PCSO and that he wanted “to be sure it wasn’t sent to the wrong place.”
That issue sorted out, on June 24, Royer emailed Terry to ask if he was seeking nonemergency dispatch service for Hiram, as well.
Terry replied that the service would just be for MPD, “but if you’re interested in taking Hiram under the same conditions, I can get them involved as well.” The loosely referenced September end date shifted as he stated “this would be 24/7 though September and possibly with option to continue if needed for a few additional months.”
Zuchowski wanted no part of it.
Losing no time in educating Terry, he and PCSO Capt. Robert James penned a June 26 letter to the Mantua police chief, outlining the multiple steps necessary for the PCSO to assume even temporary nonemergency dispatch services.
Records and documentation, an information exchange agreement, a formal contract and more would all have to be transferred to the PCSO and then transferred back again at the end of the arrangement, he said.
Zuchowski also referenced “extensive” conversations he’d had with Meyer and former acting Mantua Police Chief James Clemens.
“It has been made clear that this request is a temporary measure rather than a solution,” he wrote. “This office will not continue to serve as a band aid for an ongoing operational deficiency, particularly when a viable long-term solution has been presented multiple times.”
Then, shifting gears, the sheriff stated his intent that the PCSO would consider a temporary contract, so Mantua residents don’t experience a lapse in emergency services.
“Please be advised that this would not be a standard agreement,” he wrote. “The administrative burden associated with implementing and subsequently reversing these processes is significant, and any contract pricing will reflect that reality.”
He reminded Terry that Mantua police currently handle dispatching services for Hiram, which had used the PCSO’s dispatch service until the Hiram and Mantua police departments merged. The PCSO had absorbed the additional dispatching workload at that time, but would not do so again “without appropriate agreement or compensation,” he wrote.
What about Hiram?
Hiram has a 24/7 police department, but no dispatch center. The village had contracted with the PCSO since Jan. 1, 2021, to handle its police, fire and 911 calls, but the PCSO canceled the contract on Dec. 17, 2025.
The reason, the PCSO said — and reiterated in the June 26 letter — was that the MPD-HPD merger forced it to serve “a significantly increased population without appropriate agreement or compensation.”
Hiram Village Mayor Anne Haynam disagreed, but the PCSO’s contract cancellation sent HPD dispatch calls back to Mantua police as of Jan. 17.
RPD has also sent a dispatching proposal to Hiram police, specifying the same Jan. 1, 2027, though Dec. 31, 2029, timeframe, though potentially sooner.
According to the proposal, RPD would receive and dispatch nonemergency calls for police service directed to HPD and would maintain the associated records. Calls are defined “as the dispatching of unit/units.”
The cost to Hiram would be $61,992.60 a year, $14,366.60 more than the RPD proposes to charge Mantua. Dispatching contracts are based on population and call load, and “Hiram’s just busier than Mantua,” Smallfield said.
As of July 14, Svab said he had not yet heard back from Hiram officials. Clemens informed Hiram council members in June that he was seeking quotes from area police departments to handle the village’s dispatching needs, and Haynam told The Portager on July 15 that that is still the case.
In January, Clemens told Hiram Village Council he’d queried Mantua, Ravenna and Streetsboro about taking on Hiram PD’s dispatching needs. Clemens told council members in April that Streetsboro was set to start at the end of May, but the month came and went with no contract.
Haynam told the Portager on July 15 the village is still waiting for final word from Streetsboro, but that city’s mayor said it’s not going to happen.
“I’m having a very difficult time taking on dispatchers as it is,” Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska said. “With the amount of calls we have for service and everything else, we have to take care of Streetsboro first.”
Who’s taking the calls?
According to PCSO 911 Coordinator Daniel T. Young, all 911 calls from Hiram, Mantua and Garrettsville are first answered by the PCSO.
The PCSO dispatcher transfers calls for Mantua and Hiram to Mantua’s dispatch center, Young explained. After the PCSO has relayed the required information, and Mantua dispatch has re-entered the call details into its system, a Mantua officer is sent on the call.
If no MPD officers are on duty, Terry said they can be brought in “on call.” Mutual aid from other agencies is also an option, he said.
Should the dispatch center be closed, Terry stated that the department is already doing all it can to help its three dispatchers find employment.
Wendy DiAlesandro
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.