By Marianne Sullivan
Published on 4/28/2005
The town's two volunteer fire companies and the ambulance service are considering proposals that, if accepted, would regionalize their dispatch operations. At present, those operations are combined with the Police Department's communications division. First Selectman Tom Scarpati said the chiefs of both the Madison Hose Company and North Madison Volunteer Fire Company approached him approximately nine months ago voicing their concerns over the present emergency dispatch system. "There were issues of manpower, management, and training, particularly now that the state has new mandates for emergency medical dispatch," Scarpati said. He named a committee of representatives from the volunteer fire companies, the ambulance association, and the Police Department to address the concerns. That committee is now about to evaluate proposals from Guilford and from Valley Shore Emergency Communications, a regional communications operation serving several smaller towns east of Madison, to determine if regionalization with either group would provide efficient services for Madison. Eric Alletzhauser, chief of the North Madison Fire Company, explained, "For many, many decades, Madison has been well served by the Police Department dispatch, which has been responsible for dispatching police, fire, and ambulance services, but now Madison is experiencing more growth and this places additional pressures on the present system. In the past last couple of years, there have been signs that the present system is being stretched." In addition to growth, Alletzhauser said, there are new state mandates to consider. The state now requires that all emergency medical dispatch personnel receive additional certification and that they be able to give medical instructions to a 911 caller with the medical emergency. There are also additional reporting and "back office" functions and requirements to be met. "It places an additional strain on the system. We have to utmost respect for the police dispatchers. They are very capable and have a tough job, which they do very well, but we are beginning to see cracks in the system," he said. "The present system has been functioning well, but it is at capacity, we believe. Placing the new state requirements on top of that caused us to take a step back and look at our resources," Alletzhauser said. "If we needed an infusion of more resources, then we had to consider how to do that in the most efficient and effective way. We needed to look at the bigger picture, and for us, that was looking at a regional option," he added. (subhead) Police Chief Response Presently the Police Department communications center handles all emergency calls for the police, fire, and ambulance services. It also handles non-emergency calls for police. For instance, during last week's house fire on Linden Lane, the police dispatcher was handling emergency 911 calls reporting the fire, putting out the fire department calls, dispatching police and ambulance services, and tracking all the vehicles at the scene as well as handling calls into the Police Department concerning other issues. At a meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners last week, Police Chief Paul Jakubson said, "We had one dispatcher on at the time of the fire call. She did an excellent job, but it points to our staffing problems...Fire and ambulance feel they are not getting sufficient service at times...Right now we don't always have two dispatchers on duty at the same time." He said he believed that if the Police Department was "given proper staffing" the dispatch operations could remain with the department and in Madison. Police Commissioner William Nichols, who has been meeting the fire and ambulance representatives, told fellow commissioners, "The fire chiefs and the ambulance service are not happy." Jakubson said that if fire and ambulance dispatch were to separate from the Police Department's communications operations "it would solve some of our staffing and scheduling problems here." (subhead) Regionalization Alletzhauser said the committee appointed by the selectmen is considering regionalization for two major reasons. The first reason is economies of scale. "We believe we can have excellent service to taxpayers while seeing cost savings in the short and long term." Sharing staffing, training, and administrative costs would be beneficial, he said. The second reason, he said, would be the ability to develop a better "platform for service." Alletzhauser explained, "A regional platform makes sense for fire and ambulance. We already cooperate with neighboring towns. We back up one another. We would also be able to provide the service without the stresses presently being faced by the police dispatch. Separating police dispatch from fire and ambulance makes sense from a service aspect." Scarpati said the town had received formal proposals from both the Guilford Fire Department and Valley Shore Emergency Communications.