Bow officials will soon set the police dispatch fees for 2009, in the second year of a new system geared toward saving the town money.

During a Thursday, Oct. 23, meeting, selectmen were scheduled to make a decision but didn’t have all of the needed data. The move, however, is expected to save the town about $100,000 for the second consecutive year.

Last year, Selectman Tom Keane introduced a resolution to charge different fees to the five towns Bow provides dispatch service to based on the percentage of use by each town.

Bow officials arrive at the amount for each town based on a three-year rolling average to smooth out any irregular peaks and valleys, according to Keane.

“It comes up now because, unlike our budget, most of the towns that use our dispatch service have a traditional Town Meeting in March that they need to get a figure for,” said Keane. “Each year. you drop the furthest back year out and add the new year in, and that’s how you arrive at the figure.”

According to Keane, the town saved approximately $100,000 last year by making the decision.

Last year, Bow did not charge the full cost to the surrounding towns because it would have been a steep change so late in the budget process.

“I think other towns have said they thought it was a fair way of doing it,” said Keane. “We didn’t charge them the full fee last year because it was such short notice. They had done their budgets and it would have been kind of a shock. This year, we’re doing it earlier and they can see what the cost is and build their budgets accordingly.”

Selectmen Chairman Leon Kenison said he believes the set up is the best way to handle the fees.

“From our point of view it is,” said Kenison. “There are those who think we should be collecting more money, and we agreed that we would ease into it and then give a formula to run on its own.”