Could Rochester bring its police and fire emergency response dispatching department back to town?
Town Administrator Glenn Cannon told Rochester’s Select Board on January 17 that this is one of the options townspeople are discussing after recent problems with the Regional Old Colony Communications Center in Duxbury that it joined in 2017.
He said the options currently being talked about are creating a town-based emergency response dispatching department again or joining a different regional dispatching center. (The Rochester Select Board put out feelers to its Marion and Mattapoisett counterparts to gauge such interest when the three boards recently met to tour the Mattapoisett Fire Station.)
Fire Chief Scott Weigel said the discussion about a potential change started after the Old Colony center had problems responding in a timely fashion to emergency calls during a recent storm event. He said the source of the difficulty was a failure of the center’s Highway Department broadcast bands.
It was a high-volume night with 800 calls within a 24-hour period, but the Old Colony center closed down the Highway Department band that night because the center serves a six-town region, and the system would otherwise be overwhelmed.
“But they are trying to learn from their mistakes and correct the problem,” Weigel said.
Still Rochester Select Board Adam Murphy agreed the town should find a way to explore options. “If we don’t look at our options,” Murphy said, “we won’t be able to fix something that’s become a problem.”
In January of 2017, the town’s Select Board members approved joining the Regional Old Colony Communications Center that also serves the towns of Duxbury, Halifax and Plympton. The move made the town eligible for state funds that upgraded the town Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services departments’ communications equipment. But it meant the local dispatch center had to vacate the Dexter Lane station.
Under Old Business, Cannon referenced a recent meeting with the Rochester Council on Aging to discuss Article Eight of the Special Town Meeting agenda, which with voter approval would change a town bylaw so that the Select Board has greater control over the COA’s hiring decisions.
“There was a lot of concern about the language there in Article 8,” Cannon told the board during its January 17 meeting. He told COA leadership that he would bring the matter back to the Select Board and did so with the recommendation that while the Special Town Meeting Warrant has already been voted its approval by the board and cannot be altered, the board not make a motion on Article 8 at Town Meeting.
The town bylaw currently reads the COA shall appoint its employees. The change would require the COA to follow the same hiring procedures and policies as other bylaw employees. Cannon explained that police patrolmen, librarians and COA workers are the town’s only non-bylaw employees.
In other action, the Select Board approved a change of plan for the hydrological study that will gauge the health of the waterflow between Snipatuit Pond and Great Quittacas Pond.
Following Town Planner Nancy Durfee’s recommendation, the board agreed that one of the two gauges that will be installed to test Snipatuit Pond’s flow rate will be placed at 0 Forrester Road rather than the original plan of planting it on Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School property.
Durfee explained that Old Colony Superintendent-Director Aaron Polansky recently told her the school location is too close to the eastern end of the parcel, and the project would interfere with the school’s renovation and expansion plans. That is why she is requesting use of a town-owned lot on Forrester Road instead. She said the alternative site is directly off Northern Avenue and very wooded. Yet she hopes that placing it there won’t destroy many trees. The Select Board endorsed the plan with minimal discussion.
The other gauge will be installed at the town forest across from the Northern Avenue cemetery. The goal, Durfee said, when she proposed the plan last fall, is “to get a better understanding of the complex’s aquifer.” The flow gauges are being installed with ARPA funds totaling $20,000, and it will be the town’s responsibility to monitor their data.
Also, the board approved Diane Knapp as the new assistant town treasurer. Knapp is also a member of Board of Assessors.
Anticipating the January 22 Special Town Meeting, the Rochester Select Board set its next regular public meeting for Monday, February 5, at 6:00 pm at the Senior Center, 67 Dexter Lane.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco