Who answers when you call 911 in Webster

Dial 911 anywhere in Webster and the phone rings in the same building it would ring in if you dialed from Greece, Brighton or the city of Rochester. Monroe County runs one emergency dispatch center for the whole county. What happens after that call is where Webster gets complicated.

Who shows up depends on what you need. It may be a town department, or one of two fire districts, or a nonprofit ambulance corps. The fire districts are separate units of local government with their own elected boards and their own power to tax. The ambulance corps bills your insurance. None of that is visible from the call.

Here is who is on the other end, who pays them, and who you actually vote for.

One number, one dispatcher

Monroe County's 911 center is the Public Safety Answering Point for the entire county. Every 911 call from Webster lands there first. That is true whether the caller needs police, a fire crew or an ambulance. The dispatcher decides which agency or agencies to send.

This is the part of the system residents are least likely to get wrong, because there is only one way in. There is no separate number for Webster police as opposed to the fire district.

The same holds inside a school with a police officer assigned to the building. The town's school resource officer agreement tells staff that when a situation requires police involvement, "school staff should call 911 and notify the SRO if possible."

Police: a town department

The Webster Police Department is a department of the Town of Webster. It is paid for out of the town's property tax levy rather than through a separate special district. Dennis Kohlmeier is the police chief. The Town Board approves the department's budget each year as part of the town budget.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office holds countywide jurisdiction that applies in Webster the same as anywhere else in the county. Its role there includes the jail, the courts, civil process, marine patrol and mutual aid. Whether sheriff's deputies run routine road patrol inside Webster town limits day to day is not established by the public records the Ledger reviewed.

Two officers in the schools

The clearest example of how the police budget touches another local government is the school resource officer program.

The Town Board took up an inter-municipal agreement with the Webster Central School District on July 16, 2026. The town's posted agenda for that meeting records the resolution as approved, authorizing the supervisor to sign the 2026-27 school resource officer contract. The item had been rescheduled from the board's meeting of July 2, 2026. The agreement covers two officers and runs through June 30, 2027.

The agreement says "the TOWN will provide two School Resource Officers." Any officer assigned "shall be sworn Webster Police Officer(s)." They report through the police department's chain of command. The agreement provides that discipline arising from their SRO duties may only be administered by the police department and only in accordance with the applicable laws, rules, regulations and contractual obligations the department observes.

The money moves in one direction, and not the way most people assume. The district does not buy police coverage at a negotiated price. The district reimburses the town for actual salary and benefits for the time the officers are assigned. The town invoices twice a year, in January for September through December and in July for January through June. Overtime is billed separately every 30 days. Overtime for after-school events is charged to the individual school that asked for the officer.

The agreement contains no dollar figure anywhere in it. The cost is whatever the two officers cost, worked out after the fact.

The town keeps everything else. It sets compensation and benefits, runs payroll, reports pension service and withholds taxes. The district may ask that an officer be reassigned or replaced on performance grounds. The agreement does not oblige the town to agree. It says the town "will receive and consider any such requests."

A few other terms matter if you have children in those buildings. The officers have authority to stop, question, interview and take police action without the principal's permission and without contacting parents first. Administrative searches must be at the direction and control of district staff, the agreement says. At no time shall an officer request that such a search be conducted for law enforcement purposes, or have school staff act as the officer's agent. On discipline the language is softer. The principal "should ensure" that non-criminal discipline stays with school staff. The police department also reserves the right to pull the officers out of the schools to keep road patrol staffed or to respond to a critical incident.

Fire: two districts, and neither matches the town line

Webster has no town fire department. Fire protection comes from two fire districts, which are independent units of local government under New York Town Law. Each has its own elected five-member board of fire commissioners. Each levies its own tax on the properties it covers.

Neither district stops at the town line. Both also cover part of the Town of Penfield.

The North East Joint Fire District covers the east side of Webster and the Village of Webster. It was formed on Jan. 1, 2005. Three predecessors merged into it: the East Webster Fire Protection District, the Penfield North East Fire District and the Village of Webster's own fire department. The village has not run a separate fire department since. The district operates three volunteer-staffed stations, on South Avenue, Salt Road and Phillips Road.

The West Webster Fire District covers the west side of town and part of Penfield. It has been volunteer staffed since 1926. It operates three stations, on Gravel Road, Backus Road and Plank Road.

One title is easy to confuse with these districts. The town's fire marshal is a code enforcement position, not a firefighting one. Andrew Vorndran is the town fire marshal. The marshal inspects buildings for compliance with the state fire code. The marshal does not run trucks or respond to fire calls.

The ambulance is the piece that works differently

Emergency medical service in Webster now comes from Penfield Volunteer Emergency Ambulance Service, a nonprofit based on Jackson Road in Penfield.

The previous provider, Northeast Quadrant Advanced Life Support, gave the town 90 days' notice at the end of December 2023. The Town Board named the Penfield corps the primary agency for West Webster in January 2024. It extended that to the northeast district in March 2024. On July 3, 2025, the board voted 5 to 0 to authorize the supervisor to sign a five-year contract with the corps, according to the approved minutes of that meeting.

Police and fire response are paid for before you need them, through taxes. An ambulance transport is billed afterward, to the patient. The corps bills Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers per transport through an outside billing company. That distinction surprises people the first time they open the envelope.

The town has also paid the corps directly. At the July 2025 meeting, then-Supervisor Thomas J. Flaherty told the board that Webster contributes $100,000 a year and Penfield $200,000, according to the minutes. He said the hope was that the corps could become self-sustaining within a year or two and that town subsidies could end. What the town pays the corps now, if anything, is not established in the records the Ledger reviewed. Neither is whether either fire district pays the corps anything of its own.

The Village of Webster

The Village of Webster is a separate incorporated government inside the town, with its own mayor and board. On fire service the answer is settled. The village department merged into the North East Joint Fire District in 2005.

Police is less clear from the public record. The village lists five departments on its own website: administration, building, finance, public works and wastewater. Police is not among them. That is a fact about the list, not a confirmation of what the village does or does not have.

What this looks like on your tax bill

Four separate charges pay for what arrives when you call.

The town tax line funds the police department, along with the rest of town government.

A fire district line funds one of the two districts. Which one depends on your address rather than on whether you live in the village or elsewhere in the town.

The county tax line funds county government, including the 911 center.

The fourth is on your phone bill. New York collects a public safety communications surcharge on wireless service, and counties collect a separate 911 surcharge on access lines. Both support emergency dispatch. The Ledger did not confirm Monroe County's current rate or what share of the 911 center's budget it covers, so no figure appears here.

Electing the fire commissioners

Both fire districts hold elections every year, on the second Tuesday of December.

Each board has five commissioners serving staggered five-year terms. That means at least one seat is on the ballot every December, and a vacancy can add a second. In December 2025 the North East Joint Fire District elected one commissioner to a five-year term and one to fill a two-year vacancy.

These are the officials who set a tax line on your bill. They are elected on their own day, separate from town, county and school district voting.

How to reach them

For any emergency the number is 911, whichever service you need. One dispatcher sorts the rest.

For everything else, each organization keeps its own non-emergency line and publishes it. The Town of Webster's site lists the police department and the fire marshal. Each fire district runs its own site. So does the ambulance corps.

If you are not sure which fire district covers your address, the town's website lists both. That is worth settling before December, when the commissioners are on the ballot.

AI tools were used in drafting and research.