Madison- The Board of Selectmen is moving closer to a formal vote that will decide whether Madison will regionalize its emergency dispatch operations for fire and ambulance.
Under a proposal that John Bowers, the town's emergency management director, is expected to recommend to the selectmen, Madison would enter into a two-year contract with Guilford, which would provide the service.
The regionalization would affect Madison's two volunteer fire companies and the ambulance service. Under the agreement, the Police Department will maintain its own dispatch operations for the police force.
Bowers was not prepared to make a recommendation to the selectmen at their Monday morning meeting because discussions were still underway concerning the final costs for equipment upgrades and changes.
"I am not prepared to move forward with any recommendation until we know all our costs," First Selectman Tom Scarpati said immediately after the Board of Selectmen meeting. "Emergency dispatch has been an issue for discussion for more than a year. It has been studied by an ad hoc committee and also independently reviewed by the Police Commission." The result of these discussions and reviews was a consensus to regionalize with neighboring Guilford, which has its own fire and ambulance emergency dispatch.
Scarpati said Guilford has presented a proposal that carries a price tag of "approximately $200,000, but that is a conditional number." This year's budget includes $147,000 to cover costs of emergency dispatch.
"We realize the contract with Guilford will be more than what is now in the budget,” Scarpati said. “That is one reason why we are also waiting for final numbers on equipment. We want a solid dollar figure before we take the next step."
According to Scarpati, the next step will be a two-year contract with Guilford. Under this scenario, a 911 emergency call would be answered at the Guilford dispatch center. If the emergency was a fire, Madison's fire companies would be dispatched immediately. If the emergency was a medical call, Madison ambulance and the Police Department would be called immediately. (In Madison, the police are the first responders to medical emergencies.) If the emergency was a police matter, Guilford would automatically switch the call to the Madison Police Department's dispatchers.
"The dispatch center located now in the Police Department would remain. We will keep everything in place there," Scarpati said, "But police dispatchers will no longer be handling fire and ambulance dispatch.
(subhead) A Little History
Last April Scarpati named an ad hoc communications committee to study the issue of emergency dispatch services. He said the chiefs of both the Madison Hose Company and the North Madison Volunteer Fire Company had approached him, voicing concerns about the present dispatch system operated within the Police Department. At that time Scarpati said, "There were issues of manpower, management, and training, particularly now that the state has new mandates for emergency medical dispatch."
That committee, as part of its charge, investigated regionalization. It considered proposals from the Guilford Fire Department and from Valley Shore Emergency Communications, a regional communications operation serving several smaller towns east of Madison. The recommendation was to regionalize with Guilford for fire and medical emergency dispatch.
Maintaining emergency dispatch operations in Madison, according to Scarpati and the review conducted by the Police Commission, would require hiring a full-time supervisor of dispatchers and two part-time dispatchers in addition to the present police dispatch staff. There would also be a need for upgraded equipment and technology.
Last April Eric Alletzhauser, chief of the North Madison Fire Company, said, "For many, many decades, Madison has been well served by the Police Department dispatch, which has been responsible for dispatching police, fire, and ambulances services, but now Madison is experiencing more growth and this places additional pressures on the present system. In the past 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 a medical emergency.
"We have the utmost respect for the police dispatchers. They are very capable and have a tough job, which they do well, but we are beginning to see cracks in the system," he said.
Monday morning, with representatives from the Police Department, Police Commission, Madison Ambulance, and both fire companies in the audience, Scarpati asked each if they endorsed the regionalization with Guilford. They did.