Montville — The town will not immediately host a regional emergency dispatch center after all.

The Town Council on Monday voted to inform Colchester Emergency Communications, known as KX, that a contract signed in October is “null and void.”

The town had entered into a five-year agreement to allow KX to operate a regional dispatch center at the Montville Public Safety Building. Montville would have been the largest of nine member towns served by the nonprofit and would have reaped immediate savings.

But the move to start the transition from Colchester to Montville never got underway.

Plans were delayed when KX employees voted to unionize, a surprise to dispatchers in Montville who are not part of the ongoing contract negotiations since they are still members of a public works employees union in Montville.

Montville has three full-time Montville dispatchers, along with other part-timers. The regional dispatch center was expected to employ 14 full-time employees.

Council Chairman Joe Jaskiewicz said he was disappointed to see years of behind-the-scenes work fail to come to fruition.

“Everybody talks about regionalization, but it’s a lot easier said than done,” Jaskiewicz said.

Mayor Ronald McDaniel said the town would continue to pursue dispatch partnerships with neighboring towns.

At the time Montville signed a contract, KX dispatchers answered 911 calls and dispatched a mix of fire, emergency medical and police services in eight towns: Bozrah, Colchester, East Haddam, East Hampton, the Haddam Neck section of Haddam, Lebanon, Marlborough and Salem.

Each of the towns had a representative on the KX board and each town pays a share of operating costs based on its population and call volume. KX also receives a state stipend, $320,000 last year, which increases with each town added to the fold. KX lost $100,000 a year when Hebron joined with a dispatch center in Tolland two years ago. KX recently lost Lebanon to a dispatch center in Willimantic. Haddam Neck and East Haddam have yet to sign extended contracts.

Montville was expected to contribute about $290,000 annually. The other towns were collectively paying a total of about $522,000. For Montville it was a savings of $120,000 over the estimated $418,000 it pays now.

Montville Fire Marshal Ray Occhialini, who spearheaded the project,remained optimistic about the future.

“It’s time to start a new chapter,” Occhialini said. “I know there are other towns that want to come here.”

 g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay