Now that the Ironton City Council has agreed not to fund police dispatch June and the mayor has handed out layoff notices, Police Chief Jim Carey is looking for an alternative to getting his officers where they need to be when duty calls.

Carey said Tuesday he has spoken recently with the Greenup County, Ky., E-911.

That entity could take over dispatching and has tentatively offered him a two-year contract for $105,000 a year. The contract calls for one dispatcher dedicated to Ironton calls between 1 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Why Greenup?

For one thing, Greenup has offered and does have the equipment to do the job. Secondly, Carey said he is getting little cooperation from other county agencies.

“I had spoken to the Lawrence County Commission and they said no. I emailed the sheriff and got no return. So I’m looking at my options,” Carey said.

Carey said he understood Sheriff Jeff Lawless had told city officials he would take over city police dispatching for $150,000 a year.

Lawless was contacted for comment but could not be reached.

“My feeling is, it should be zero,” Carey said. “When Don Mootz was over 911 he tried to get the city to join and at that time it was zero (at that time),” Carey said. “We already have a funding mechanism in place and that’s the half-percent sales, tax. So I feel like we already pay for the service. If it had been up to me, we would have been with 911 years ago.”

Carey said he will discuss the matter with city council and Mayor Rich Blankenship.

City council must give its approval to any such plan.