Town of Longboat Key will investigate 911 offer

The Longboat Key Town Commission agreed to continue to investigate the possibility of Sarasota County taking over the town’s 911 police and fire dispatch services at its Monday, April 15 regular meeting at Town Hall this afternoon.

The county has offered the service to Longboat Key, Venice and North Port because they are the only municipalities they don’t cover under their system.

While commissioners have reservations that the county’s offer will not be able to replicate the town’s current level of service, they agreed to move forward because the due diligence period does nothing more than allow the town to see what kind of cost savings are available.

Town Manager Dave Bullock said the county and Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight has agreed to a higher level of service, as long as the town lays out what expectation of service it requires.

“We have let the county know we dispatch a police officer for snake in the toilet type calls and don’t want that type of service to change,” Bullock said.

For more information, pick up a copy of Thursday’s April 18 Longboat Observer.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].