Keeping Amherst Affordable: Consolidate and graduate

By STANLEY F. GAWLE

Published on October 03, 2008

An article published in the Amherst Bulletin on Aug. 27 reported on a local effort to consolidate the 911 emergency dispatch services which are currently handled individually by the University of Massachusetts, and the Amherst and Hadley police departments.

To his credit, Amherst Police Chief Charles Scherpa has been advocating for the past five years to combine the UMass and Amherst Police Department dispatch services to reduce costs.

Legitimate questions and concerns were raised in the article about the hiring and supervision of the dispatchers and who would control the dispatch center. A proposal by our town manager to hire a $16,000 consultant to evaluate how the consolidation would work was also mentioned in that article.

As an alternative to the hiring of a consultant, I would suggest that the town manager and his committee contact the Shelburne Control Dispatch Center and the State 911 Department. Both of these groups are funded by taxpayers and have both the experience and resources to assist in any consolidation effort.

Over 15 years ago, I was part of a selectmen's group in Franklin County that studied a proposal by the state police to provide 911 emergency dispatch services in Franklin County free of charge. At the time, we had our own regionally funded dispatch system that worked reasonably well. It covered most of the towns in Franklin County with the exception of the three largest towns of Greenfield, Montague and Orange.

The state police proposal at that time was very controversial and emotional. This issue was brought before 23 different Town Meetings during a period of two years. Staffing and "local control" were at the center of sometimes heated Town Meeting discussions. Many boards of selectmen supported the change while many fire chiefs and EMTs were opposed.

In the end, 23 towns accepted the state police proposal. Voters were persuaded that the cost of updating the hardware and software systems and maintaining upgraded certification standards would be a staggering cost for the towns to fund.

To date, the Shelburne Control Dispatch Center continues to provide quality and professional services for 34,288 Franklin County residents with no direct charges to the 23 member communities. Although the Massachusetts State Police operate the dispatch center, a five-member oversight committee has representation from the police, fire, EMTs, selectmen and boards of health. They meet regularly. That committee reviews and updates the rules and regulations governing how the dispatch center functions as well as dealing with complaints.

On July 1, the State 911 Department was created with the passage of Chapter 223 of the Acts of 2008. According to its Web site, "the State 911 Department provides equipment, database, network and technical support services to all primary Public Safety Answering Points." Among its various provisions, it could provide funds for the development and start up of regional public answering points and emergency communications centers.

The Amherst Bulletin article of Aug. 27 also referred to the formation of a committee to "look at regionalization." I would hope that the town manager would use an open process this time for committee recruitment, and require posted meetings and minutes. I think it would also be beneficial to have several taxpayers appointed to the committee.

The current 911 emergency dispatch system doesn't make the best use of our tax dollars. Amherst taxpayers now support 911 emergency dispatch services through their local property tax, their state taxes and charges on their cell and house phones.

I urge the town of Amherst, and the other parties, to move forward with this proposed regionalization effort. Funds for the development of a new regional dispatch center could be available from the State 911 Department, reducing significantly any costs to the communities.

If implemented, the savings realized by the regionalization merger could be used to reduce our budget gap.

Stanley F. Gawle is a member of the Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change.