BOS to decide by Aug. 2
If Harvard’s selectmen sign the inter-municipal agreement (IMA) to include Harvard in a shared services initiative with Shirley, Lunenburg, Lancaster, and MassDevelopment (MassDev) before Aug. 2, Harvard will move its dispatch service from the Public Safety Building on Ayer Road to the regional facility planned for a wing of the Old Shirley School at 270 Barnum Road in Devens. The Nashoba Valley Regional Emergency Communication Center (NVRECC) could be open as soon as the beginning of fiscal year 2013 (July 2012), according to Town Administrator Tim Bragan. Bragan said Harvard’s deadline for signing the IMA and joining the initiative is Aug. 2; the conditions and constraints of the IMA are known only to town officials.
MassDev Leads the talks; retains consulting firm iXP Corporation
Bragan said that over the past several months Chief Thomas Garrity of the Devens Fire Department, a MassDev employee, has led the effort to pursue a regional dispatch center. Garrity involved MassDev officials and fire chiefs, police chiefs, and town administrators from Harvard, Shirley, Lunenburg, and Lancaster, in private meetings to discuss shared dispatch services. Also, using grant funds received in 2009, MassDev hired iXP Corporation, whose expertise is consolidating communication center operations and privatizing call center and dispatching services. According to its website, iXP provided a full set of planning and implementation services for the Fire Department of New York City’s (FDNY) 8,000-square-foot operations center from conception to live operations, including an initial assessment, requirements, planning, and conceptual design.
According to a PowerPoint presentation obtained by the Harvard Press, produced by iXP for the NVRECC project, iXP did a feasibility study for the NVRECC in March 2011 and a preliminary design in May 2011. It estimates completion of a final design in June and expects to request bids for construction in July 2011, with construction to start as early as August.
What happens to dispatch in Harvard
According to Bragan, Harvard currently employs seven dispatchers, four of whom are full-time; all of the towns signing the agreement, along with MassDev, employ four full-time dispatchers as well as part-time dispatch personnel. Staffing at the new NVRECC would include 15 dispatch personnel, including a dispatch manager/administrator, shift supervisor, and dispatchers, iXP estimated. The equipment in the dispatch office in Harvard’s Public Safety Building would remain in place as backup. Dispatch personnel from the four towns and MassDev would be allowed to apply for the jobs being created at the new center.
Governance of regional center
Bragan said that the NVRECC would be managed on an operational (day-to-day) basis by “a group made up of chiefs from each of the communities.” Policy for those day-to-day operations would be set by an oversight group appointed by the boards of selectmen from the member towns and MassDev. The group would report to the towns and MassDevelopment.
EMS2000: a potential cost multiplier?
Bragan stated that Harvard faces compliance with EMS2000, a 2000 state law intended to improve the quality of emergency medical care in Massachusetts and which requires two dispatchers at all times, one “to triage and dispatch responders” and the other to provide pre-arrival instructions (e.g. how to do CPR or control bleeding) to callers. Harvard’s fiscal 2011 budget for communications (dispatch) personnel shown in the finance book at the 2011 Annual Town Meeting was $223,440. Harvard generally has only one dispatcher per shift, so to comply with EMS2000 the town would have to double its dispatch personnel, increasing costs to $446,880.
The cost of construction and equipment for the new center is estimated by iXP to be approximately $1,766,224. In its draft operating budget, iXP estimated that total operating costs for the dispatch center would be $1,071,019, based on variables such as administrative expenses, professional services, information technology (IT) support, maintenance, and utilities, which would be offset by the annually recurring 911 grant amount of $356,514. In this model, the cost of $696,119 would be shared by the participating communities. Towns would remain responsible for ongoing cost increases for operational support and services. Bragan emphasized that the 911 grant would recur annually. If five participants share the cost, the amount per participant would be $139,224. Bragan said that “by joining the NVRECC we would have a gross savings of approximately $135,932” in the first year of center operations.
The iXP PowerPoint presentation, recently presented by Garrity to town and MassDev officials, lists information on grants that will be funding the project. In addition to the $500,000 grant received in 2009, MassDev submitted a revised $475,792 grant application in January 2010 to Central MA Homeland Security Council for radio equipment to support the NVRECC, which is on hold until IMAs are executed.
On May 19 MassDev submitted a $176,6224 grant application to the State 911 Board to complete construction and fully equip the NVRECC and expects this award to be announced in September 2011; likewise, it has submitted a $235,475 grant application to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) for inclusion in the state’s application to US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish the Nashoba Valley Emergency Operating Center that will be incorporated in the NVRECC space. The state expects to make awards in September 2011.
Who decides?
Harvard’s selectemen are being asked to decide before Aug. 2 whether to sign the IMA. No hearings or special town meetings are required to enter into the agreement, Bragan said, adding that the town would first officially see the impact of the agreement at the next Annual Town Meeting (ATM) on the budget line for communications.
