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MACON, MO. -- Those in Charge of Macon County’s E 9-1-1 Dispatch Center say they need money to help pay for the services they’ve been providing for free.

A meeting on that topic was held Wednesday evening in Macon.

Back in 1998, the E 9-11 center began operating Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement Terminal, also known as MULES, for all criminal justice agencies in Macon County, with the exception of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. At that time, ad since then the center absorbed any fees associated with the operation of the terminal, including circuit fees, software, the training of personnel, perishables such as paper and printer ink and time spent for date input.

“When we installed the MULES Terminal, it was installed based on our operating revenue which all comes from the sales tax," said Mike Kindle, Macon County 911 director. “As I started doing research around the state for our board about any services that we are providing that we can recoup our costs, it was pointed out to me that making entries into MULES is really a criminal justice function and it’s not something that our agency should be doing without charging for the service,” Kindle said.

The board is currently looking at operating revenues and expenditures and that includes asking law enforcement agencies to now pay a fee for such services, something not everyone is on board because the various agencies are also facing a budget shortfall.

“I’m concerned about it simply because it would be another debt in our budget that would cost us to lose money somewhere else in my budget and it would not be something we could recoup so it will be an additional expense to our budget,” Macon Police Chief Steve Olinger said.

Macon County’s E 9-1-1 center would like to charge the various law enforcement agencies a flat fee of $7.50 for every entry they put in the MULES system that isn’t covered in their funding.

A decision on how they would implement that fee or when was not reached during Wednesday’s meeting.

Everyone involved plan to meet again in May to discuss their options and hopefully come to an agreement.