Marble Falls to provide dispatch services for Bee Cave PD
A dispatcher works at a console at the Highland Lakes Regional Emergency Communications Center in Marble Falls. Staff photo
Marble Falls dispatchers will soon likely start taking calls for the Bee Cave Police Department. If a proposed deal between the cities is sealed, it could mean major savings for all of the partners in the Highland Lakes Regional Emergency Communications Center.
Marble Falls City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, Jan. 6, to approve an interlocal agreement between the city and Bee Cave to provide dispatch services for BCPD starting in October. City attorneys still need to review the deal before it is finalized.
Marble Falls is the home of the Highland Lakes Regional Emergency Communications Center, housed at the Marble Falls Police Department, which serves 16 different agencies throughout the Highland Lakes region. Other than Marble Falls-area agencies, it includes police departments, fire departments, and other emergency services in Granite Shoals, Cottonwood Shores, Burnet, and Spicewood. Now, Bee Cave police will likely be added to the network.
“Although this request lies outside of the original geographic footprint (of the HLRECC), it aligns with the evolving strategic direction of the regional partnerships (we have developed),” HLRECC Director Stacy Baker Marberry told the City Council on Tuesday. “Feedback throughout the process has been positive with the consensus that thoughtful, sound financial expansion benefits all of the partners and the city of Marble Falls.”
Marberry explained that the HLRECC was capable of taking on the increased workload and that operational costs for the city of Marble Falls would actually go down by bringing in Bee Cave.
As it stands, Marble Falls handles about $1.3 million, or 71 percent, of the $1.84 million in expenditures for the HLRECC, with other members contributing a total of about $533,600, or 29 percent. Once Bee Cave comes on board, that will shift to about $1.02 million, or 52.44 percent, from Marble Falls and about $932,000, or 47.56 percent, from the other members from the new total of $1.96 million in expenditures.
“Dispatch services” includes processing 9-1-1 calls throughout the HLRECC’s jurisdiction, handling non-emergency calls to included agencies, managing public safety radio dispatch, and regulating field communications during incidents and special circumstances.
Bee Cave City Manager Julie Oakley also spoke on behalf of the city during Tuesday’s meeting, explaining that this was a good deal for them as well. They currently use dispatch services from the city of Lakeway.
“The city of Bee Cave is looking for a more financially stable environment to operate in,” she said. “Costs have increased over 60 percent in the last two years and it is just not a sustainable model. We’re looking for a partner that we can budget with each year and we can rely on those numbers.”
Under the terms of the deal, Bee Cave will pay in for equipment expansions, technology upgrades, and staffing required to handle the increased workload for the HLRECC. This amounts to an estimated total contribution of $692,455 in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Bee Cave police have comparable numbers to dispatch services for Marble Falls police. In 2024, BCPD took 18,577 calls for service and MFPD took 16,254. The HLRECC took 73,192 total calls for service in 2024 and expects to take in 91,769 in 2025.
Marble Falls had an estimated population of 9,413 as of 2024 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and Bee Cave had 8,510 in that same year.
According to Marble Falls Mayor John Packer, the city has been investing in the HLRECC for the last 10 years.
“The goal of the regional communications center was to spread the cost over more organizations so that everyone’s cost per call goes down,” he said.