Mass. communities urged to regionalize dispatch

By Dan Magazu
The Sentinel & Enterprise

LUNENBURG, Mass. — Several emergency officials in the region say that when it comes to the possibility of regionalizing dispatch services, it's not a question of if but when.

"There's no question in my mind you will see regional dispatch," Lunenburg Fire Chief Scott Glenny said. "It should provide for a more efficient operation, and there would be cost savings down the road. But the important thing is for us to take our time and make sure we do it the right way."

The state is encouraging communities to explore regionalizing dispatch services by providing grant money to investigate the feasibility and to build regional dispatch centers.

A group of 15 communities in this area, including Lunenburg, Fitchburg and Lancaster, has received a $50,000 grant from the state to explore the issue.

Fitchburg Fire Chief Kevin Roy said he sees regional dispatch as a long-term project for the city. He said many of the communities that have regionalized in Massachusetts are much smaller.

"Fitchburg is pretty big, and our call volumes are much higher than some of these other areas," he said. "Right now, we're keeping all our options open. I think, eventually, regionalization is the way we will go, but we want to do it safely. You can't look at it as just a money-saving issue."

Fitchburg City Councilor Kevin Starr, who has submitted a petition seeking to centralize Fitchburg's dispatch services, said he is a big supporter of eventually switching to regional dispatch.

"The pros will far outweigh the cons," Starr said. "I think there just needs to be a lot of brainstorming, and it needs to get done as soon as possible."

Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said cities and towns are being forced to explore things like regionalization because of the economic situation.

"We are being asked to do more and more with less and less," he said. "We need to be working together to find ways to save money, whether it's by regionalizing dispatch or transportation or whatever."

Mazzarella said he's willing to work with any surrounding communities on regional efforts. He said the location of a dispatch center doesn't matter as long as the dispatchers know what they're doing.

"If they're professionally trained and know the area, I don't have an issue with them being outside the city," he said.

Lunenburg Police Chief Daniel Bourgeois said there are pros and cons when it comes to regional dispatch.

He said one of his biggest concerns with dispatchers moving out of town is that they currently serve as around-the-clock greeters in the Public Safety Facility.

"We generate a lot of lobby activity in the Public Safety Facility, not only on the day shift but also on the night shift," Bourgeois said. "Dispatch acts as that go-between for us. These folks do a tremendous amount of work."

He also said dispatchers monitor the security of the Public Safety Building.

Lunenburg dispatcher Tony Newell said dispatchers in each community have different procedures and protocols they go through.

"You'd probably have to develop one standard for dispatching for all the communities," Newell said. "That will come through the planning."

Newell, who has dispatched in Lunenburg for 15 years, said switching to regional dispatch will create a void when it comes to walk-in services and the personal touch of having someone in-house.

"There is a financial aspect, but there's also a human aspect," he said. "We're here for the people whether they're calling up or walking in."

One of the benefits of regional dispatching is there would be multiple people to handle calls. Lunenburg only has one dispatcher on at a time to handle dispatching for police, fire, water, public works and ambulance services, Newell said.

He said people often don't realize how many calls often go into responding to just one event.

"If there's a serious accident, we're making calls to police, fire and ambulance services," he said. "We may have to call for outside paramedics if additional ambulances are needed or call for a helicopter if the injuries are really serious. You're making a lot of calls in a short window of time."

Rutland Fire Chief Thomas Ruchala, who has played a lead role in the group studying regionalization, said he's seeking a commitment from a few individual towns to join the regional dispatch center already set up among Rutland, Oakham and Hubbardston.

"We're trying to get a few of these towns to start providing us with specifics about their call volume and activity level to see what we have to do to bring them in," he said. "Our first goal is to expand on what we have now. We're trying to have a little bit bigger center, which could serve as a model for future centers."

Ruchala said a city like Fitchburg is too large to join the current center, but the ultimate goal is to work toward building an entirely new center that could take on Fitchburg and other communities.

"By next year, I think we'd be ready to start looking at building something," he said.

Lancaster Town Manager Orlando Pacheco said he's eager to see some progress with the formation of a regional dispatching system.

"The one thing we've learned from other states is, it works and works well," Pacheco said. "It's a matter of, can you deal with the labor issues surrounding it?"

Pacheco said the pressure is on cities and towns to find ways to cut costs and be more efficient.

"I see nothing but positives in terms of taxpayer benefits from regional dispatch," he said. "Yes, there may be less of a need for the amount of dispatchers, but you will still have quality dispatchers providing very good service, and you spread out that cost. The positives outweigh the negatives on this one."

Lunenburg's Glenny said there are still many questions surrounding regional dispatching.

"Every other state in the country is doing regional dispatch," he said, "so we know the answers are out there."

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