A shortage of regional emergency dispatchers has triggered a personnel crisis for coordination first responders in at least one county along Maine’s midcoast region.

It’s gotten so bad that some deputy sheriffs are being forced off the road to instead sit behind the otherwise-vacant radio desk.

The biggest community in Knox County, Rockland, has gotten so tired of the lack of county radio service it’s come up with a plan that sounds like the old days – its own, locally-run dispatch desk.

The onset of the 21st century across the country triggered a newfangled regional approach to police, fire and ambulance dispatching.

But it’s gotten to the point where police and fire chiefs are thinking they ought to go back to having towns and cities run their own individual dispatching services.

While regional dispatching might theoretically save money by consolidating operations, in practice the costs of setting up and maintaining a centralized system can be substantial, potentially outweighing the savings.

The moral to the story seems to be that regional ain’t always so pretty. Or cheap.

In Knox County, for instance, municipal fire and police chiefs recently begged county commissioners to get their act together when it comes to effective dispatching.

The regional radio desk falls under the purview of the county administration and is funded collectively by all 40,000 property taxpayers in Knox County’s 17 towns.

The Knox Regional Communications Center has been in business since 2001 when municipalities opted into the centralized emergency dispatch.

Prior to that, individual towns ran their own emergency dispatch systems.

For some reason people in rural America continue to be reluctant ceding their decisions to a regional authority.

The politicians who love big government still can’t get it through their heads that Americans cherish small. They don’t like big.

Political philosopher Alex de Tocqueville (1805-1859) may have said it best after studying democracy in America. He wrote that centralized government “excels in preventing, not doing.”

Knox County commissioners seemed to reluctantly acknowledge the unpopularity of regional – aka big -government in an awkwardly penned, incomprehensible letter they sent to taxpayers 18 months ago. They were clearly afraid to really say what they actually meant.

“While we do not pretend to know the full extent of the problem or its origin, it is our belief that it stems in large part from a lack of effective communication between county officials and county employees, as well as between county officials and the public at large,” they wrote.

If that’s not bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, what is?

Waldo County dispatchers, meanwhile, have occasionally stepped in and taken over the radio calls for Knox County, which for some reason apparently can’t figure out how to run a successful regional dispatch service.

Camden officials are so exasperated they’re half-seriously wondering whether they should secede from Knox County and join Waldo County, which previously helped dispatch police and fire vehicles.

“We should rejoin Waldo County,” said Camden Selectwoman Alison McKellar, drawing raised eyebrows at a recent meeting. “Camden needs to be part of Waldo County.”