The Bow Dispatch Center will see more revenue in the coming year from the four other towns it services as the town attempts to bring the center’s costs for service more in line with its financial capability.

It costs about $400,000 to run the dispatch center, said Bow Police Chief Jeff Jaran, and under the new fee system Bow will see more than double the amount it currently collects from Epsom, Pembroke, Dunbarton and Allenstown. That includes running equipment as well as paying eight employees, five of those being full time.

The new payment system adds a $10,000 base fee to the costs associated with each town’s service call numbers from 2006. In all of the towns, that amounts to at least a 100 percent increase over what they currently pay.

Bow collected $79,000 between all four towns last year, which, Jaran said, barely funds the salary of one dispatcher. With the new fees, Bow would collect $165,000, leaving about $235,000 to Bow taxpayers.

The increased fees came from discussions with the Bow Board of Selectmen on how to get more revenue for the town. They were forced to tighten their belts for the 2008-09 year.

For 2008-09, Epsom will pay $43,000 for Bow Dispatch services, up from $19,000 for the current year; Pembroke will pay $59,000, a jump from about $30,000; Allenstown will pay $41,000, up from $21,000; and Dunbarton will pay almost $23,000, more than double from the prior year’s $11,000.

Jaran said the affected departments were understanding of Bow’s plight, being in the midst of budget seasons themselves. Many of those towns have been forced to shed some extra weight from their budgets as well.

Bow service calls now account for almost half of the overall call volume, which makes the new distribution of costs fair across the board, Jaran said. In 2006, the year upon which the new fees are based, Bow Dispatch took 6,195 calls from Allenstown; 6,682 from Epsom; 10,072 from Pembroke; 2,605 from Dunbarton; and 18,980 in Bow for total of more than 44,534 calls.

Bow has seen a 12 percent increase in the town’s portion of the total call volume between 2006 and 2007, most of which is attributed to officer-initiated activity, additional officers on the streets and, thus, higher arrest numbers, said Jaran.

“We’ve got more officers doing the job. That alone spikes your calls for service,” said Jaran. “We’re just busier overall, right across the board. You can’t really point to one thing in particular.”

For 2007, Bow Dispatch received a total of 48,139 calls, with Bow’s portion of those amounting to 23,193, he said.

The four other towns have taken the fee increases well, Jaran said, and understand they are still getting exceptional service for a relatively low price.

When plans for changing the fees began brewing in summer 2007, the original proposal was to charge a flat rate of $50,000 for all towns. Jaran said he wanted to see a more equitable means of determining what each town should pay, which resulted in the current plans.

Police from some of the towns have said they looked into other dispatch services, such as Merrimack County, but found there were not yet the facilities and resources to make such a move.

Pembroke Police Chief Scott Lane said he has looked into folding into Merrimack County dispatch services, as well as those town-independent services in Concord and Hooksett, but said Bow was the only viable option.

“I am very happy with Bow’s service. It was fortunate that our fees were as low as they were for as long as they were,” said Lane.

Dunbarton Police Chief Christopher Connelly agreed, saying Bow Dispatch is the best service he’s dealt with in more than 20 years of law enforcement experience and that the increase in fees are more than fair. He added he also looked into other dispatch avenues, but said it wouldn’t save money at this point to switch the information system and frequencies over.

“Really, Bow continues to be our best option and is really in the same ballpark where we could go with other services,” said Connelly. “I think it’s an equitable way to do business based on the calls for service.”