SWEETWATER COUNTY — Sweetwater County’s combined communications dispatchers dealt with more than 85,000 calls during 2025.

The Sweetwater County commissioners heard the Sweetwater County Combined Communications Joint Powers Board’s annual report Tuesday morning, with the board’s Executive Director Nick Erskine and Information Technology Director David Halter speaking about the dispatch center’s 2025 highlights.

According to data provided by the Sweetwater County Combined Communications Dispatch Center, the center received 14,598 911 voice calls during 2025, almost flat from 2024’s number of 14,813. Overall, 90% of the calls were made using wireless phones. Emergency calls with a 307 area code accounted for 60.75% of all calls. 

“Roughly 40% of all the 911 calls we take are from phones that are not Wyoming registered,” Erskine said.

The total number of calls the dispatch center dealt with was 85,101, which includes 47,471 inbound administration calls and 23,032 outbound administration calls. There were 4,371 calls transferred to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and Rock Springs Police Department received a majority of the dispatch calls from the center, with the sheriff’s office receiving 27,452 calls and the RSPD receiving 25,618. The Green River Police Department had 11,835 class, with the fourth highest number going to Castle Rock Ambulance Service, which had 5,351.

The joint powers board completed a server upgrade project last year, which Halter says needs to take place about every five years. He said the replacement was necessary to use the next version of the virtual machine software used by the center. The center also completed an emergency project replacing its uninterrupted power supply system after a failure in its main data center. In July 2025, a DC capacitor exploded and the resulting smoke was released into the server room, which triggered the fire suppression system’s release of a dry, fire-suppressing chemical. The old system was repaired until the new power system replacement eventually took place in December, with the work postponing a planned microwave replacement project. The change resulted in more power efficiency at the center, though Halter says they’re still paying more for power due to increased power rates.

Commissioners Ask About PulsePoint, Grant Request

The commissioners asked about PulsePoint, a phone app that allows volunteers to respond to calls involving sudden cardiac arrest. Chairman Keaton West wondered if responses resulted in congestion to calls as people try to respond, with bystanders getting in the way of first responders. Erskine said congestion hasn’t occurred in those situations, saying people tend to allow first responders to take over because CPR is an exhausting activity and they defer to EMS workers because of their better training. Halter said the alert goes to a quarter-mile radius from the call for the general public and a half-mile radius for trained emergency responders.

“It’s a pretty tight circle,” Halter said.

West also asked if the commissioners can give support to a grant request the combined communications board is writing to Rep. Harriet Hageman’s office for a radio console and 911 phone system. Halter said the City of Rock Springs approached the combined communications board last week about the grant, describing it as “one of those hurry up and run type deals.” He said the combined communications board provided a synopsis to the city about their upcoming projects as the city wanted to try a different approach beyond applying for funds to cover the city’s ongoing Bitter Creek project. 

“They thought of us, so they are using their grant writers to write that grant for Hageman’s office,” Halter said.

Halter believes a letter of support from the county commissioners would be a powerful piece to include with that grant request. If approved, the grant would reduce the capital needs from the governing bodies involved in the joint powers agreement. West said the approval meant it would reduce the board’s budgetary request to the county by approximately $1 million.

Time is short however, as the application is due Friday and Halter admits the combined communications board is in a tough spot because the manufacturer is offering a discount for the radio console. The deal would bring a new system cost down to about $884,000 for the two dispatch centers the communications board operates, which represents a savings of about $500,000 from the regular price. That deal expires at the end of the month and the board won’t know if it will receive the grant until July.

“I did ask Motorola what the chances are getting that same price next year, and of course they’re not going to tell me that – but it was worth the asking,” Halter said.