Madison - Facing a room filled with volunteer firefighters, members of the ambulance association, dispatchers, and representatives from the Police Department administration, First Selectman Tom Scarpati last week said he was frustrated by the inability of all the parties to find a resolution to the concerns being voiced about the town's emergency dispatch operations.
“I first heard about this issue 18 months ago. I honestly thought we could do some things to force a resolution. We appointed a committee...but nothing has been done, nothing...I'm embarrassed to say I can't force this issue to be resolved. The selectmen are caught in the middle. Now we have the unpleasant task of having to cut the baby in half because the sides here are so entrenched,” he said.
The town's two volunteer fire departments are pushing the Board of Selectmen to resolve problems they see with the town's emergency dispatch. Frustrated by what they see as a lack of action, the departments made their concerns public the week before during a selectmen's meeting.
The present dispatch system, located in the Police Services Building and overseen by the Police Department, has “numerous deficiencies,” the volunteers said, and they are seeking to regionalize emergency dispatch operations with Guilford.
“From what we can observe, nothing has been done within the Madison Dispatch Center to address the concerns that were raised and documented nine months ago, other than actions initiated by fire and EMS personnel themselves. Moreover, the recommendation to regionalize has been stalled by further evaluation and review. The lack of improvement coupled with delay in regionalizing dispatch places our citizens and responders at risk,” Eric Alletzhauser, chief of the North Madison Volunteer Fire Company, wrote to Scarpati recently.
After listening to pleas from Alletzhauser and Robert Gerard, chief of the Madison Hose Co. #1, the Board of Selectmen agreed to vote on the regionalization proposal at its Dec. 19 meeting. In the meantime, Selectman Charles Walz had asked the two fire chiefs to meet with him to provide him with more information on the issue. What resulted from that request was the meeting at the Town Campus Dec. 7 where every seat in the meeting room was filled.
“The firefighters believe the only resolution is regionalization, specifically with Guilford...but I have a real problem with the fact that this seems impossible to resolve in-house,” Scarpati said.
Bill Lewis, a director of the Madison Ambulance Association, offered a suggestion.
“We are in full agreement that the management problem is not unique to Madison, but our frustration is building. There are safety issues involved...but the problem we see is if we farm out dispatch, does it instantly cure our problems or do we create others?” he said. Lewis recommended the town use the services of Power Phone, a local company that has established dispatch systems for the state of Vermont and the United Nations, among others.
Volunteer firefighters did not agree with the suggestion. Gerard said the suggestion should have been made 18 months ago when the concerns were raised. Alletzhauser said regionalization with Guilford offered many advantages.
A Little History
The dispatch center is currently supervised by the Police Department. Police Chief Paul Jakubson provided those at the Dec. 7 meeting with some history of the center. Originally fire, ambulance, and police calls were all dispatched “out of a cubbyhole in the former Town Hall.” When the police station was opened on Old Rte. 79, the operation moved to the police station where it had more space. All three emergency services were dispatched from the center “which remained a separate entity.”
At some point in the mid-1980s, the chief said, enhanced 911 calling became available. “Around then, as a matter of convenience, the dispatch budget was folded into the police budget, but we had no management function,” he said. Over the intervening years, “We were tasked with this operation.”
Jakubson agreed, “It is time this operation was looked at and possibly handled independently. I have heard some of the concerns, but I will bet you that when these problems have occurred it has been when we have had only one dispatcher on duty, and was doing the best job he could under the circumstances.”
The chief added the dispatch operation “has outgrown our capability to manage it, I admit it, but we can no longer do this on essentially a part-time basis.” He contended that additional dispatch personnel were needed immediately “if we expect to fix this problem.”
A Dispatcher's View
Donald Sullivan, one of the town's full-time dispatchers, was also at the meeting. When properly staffed, he said, there should be two dispatchers--one on the first shift, two on a second shift, and one dispatcher on the evening shift.
“In fact, in most cases, we have two dispatchers on the first and second shifts only three days a week,” he said. Staffing, he insisted, was inadequate.
As an example, he explained, “The other day I was there by myself--filling an overtime shift because no one else was available. In those four hours I answered a minimum of 30, 911 calls, dispatched the ambulance three times and fire companies twice. I was the only person in the building. The police supervisor was out on the road and the officers were on patrol. The dispatch center is understaffed and we don't have supervision. That's the problem.”
Under questioning from Mark Daricek, a dispatcher who works on a per diem basis for both Madison and Guilford, Scarpati said there were funds within the present budget that would allow the hiring of additional dispatch personnel “if a decision is made to keep the operation here.”
After two hours of discussion and no clear resolution, Walz, who had originally sought the meeting, said, “I still have more questions than answers.”
© The Day Publishing Co., 2005
For home delivery, please call 1-866-846-9099