The Board of Selectmen voted this week to commit Harvard to the proposed five-town regional dispatch facility at Devens to handle its 911 calls to town police, the fire department and other emergency services.
But while the vote was unanimous, the agreement will not take effect unless the communities of Lancaster, Shirley, Lunenburg, and Devens also vote to sign it. Devens is expected to sign the agreement once MassDevelopment, its governing authority, approves it.
Devens fire Chief Thomas Garrity has led the effort to create a Nashoba Valley Regional Emergency Communications Center and the facility will be on Devens land. But the commitment of the remaining three towns is in doubt. Although their selectmen are expected to vote on the plan this month, Harvard Town Administrator Tim Bragan told Harvard Selectmen on Tuesday that he had no idea what outcome to expect.
Efforts to create a regional dispatch center have been in the works for two years, driven by a desire to reduce the cost of town services and the availability of sizeable grants from state and national homeland security agencies. In addition, new state requirements could force Harvard to double the number of dispatchers it has on duty at any given time. Towns in other regions of the state, such as Cohasset, Hull, Hingham, and Norwell on the South Shore and Amherst, Hadley, Belchertown, and Pelham in western Massachusetts have pursued a similar strategy.
In a Press interview this summer, Bragan said that by joining the NVRECC, Harvard could expect "a gross savings of approximately $135,932" in the first year of center operations, though the financial impact would not become apparent until 2012.
Under the terms of the Inter-Municipal Agreement that will govern its operation, a new dispatch center would be built in a wing of the former Shirley elementary school on Barnum Road at Devens and the dispatch center at the Harvard police station would close, though its equipment would be maintained as a backup facility.
Harvard's seven dispatchers, four of whom are full-time employees, would each have to apply for one of the 15 new positions at the new facility. Emergency 911 calls from Harvard residents would be routed to the Devens center, which would then dispatch necessary fire, police and other services. During off-hours, anyone who enters the Harvard Police Station seeking help will be able to make video contact with the regional center to request aid.
Selectman Peter Warren, who supports the plan, complained Tuesday that the town had not done a good job of informing the public. Details of the plan have been available on the town website for weeks (See http://www.harvard.ma.us/Pages/Regional%20Dispatch). A single public information meeting was held at the town library in August, but no one attended. As has been the case elsewhere in the state, the Selectmen, not Town Meeting, will decide the next steps.
Warren, a former Harvard fire chief, also worried about the role MassDevelopment would play during the initial months the center will operate.
"I don't have much faith in MassDevelopment" and its role as treasurer and operating board for the center, he said. "I don't like that idea."
"That's for initial startup," Bragan assured him. "You have to start somewhere."
Authority will eventually be transferred to an independent governing committee, to which each town will appoint members, he added. Day-to-day operations will be managed by chiefs from the participating towns.
Selectman Bill Johnson wondered at what point Harvard should consider advocating for a smaller consortium of four or even three towns.
"I think it would be prudent to do it now," said Police Chief Edward Denmark, who has represented Harvard at planning meetings. The agreement would have to be rewritten, said Bragan, but according to estimates Denmark had prepared for the meeting, a three-town consortium would reduce Harvard's gross savings by only $12,000.
The agreement endorsed by Selectmen this week will take effect only after the five towns it names have voted to join. At least two grants that would support the new center are on hold until the outcome is known, including a nearly half-million dollar Central Massachusetts Homeland Security Council grant for the purchase of equipment, and another $176,000 State 911 Board grant for construction and equipment, which was due to be awarded this month.
The total cost of the new center is estimated at $1,766,224, with an annual operating cost of $1,071,019 to be shared among participating towns, of which Harvard's portion would be $139,224.