CLAYTON • St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley asked the County Council Tuesday to authorize a grant of up to $332,500 to enable a merger of the Central County and North Central County emergency dispatch centers.

The funding would come from the sales tax of one-tenth of one percent that voters passed in 2009 to establish a countywide public safety communications system.

The grant would cover about 70 percent of the estimated startup costs of the proposed merger.

The county's director of operations, Garry Earls, said consolidating the two systems now would save money in the future.

"The Emergency Communications Commission is at the point where they're trying to build out that radio system," Earls said. "Each of the county's emergency answering points will need new radio equipment, and we want to encourage cutting one of those answering points out."

The proposed dispatch center would serve 23 fire departments in the county.